Veteranshttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/veterans
en-usFri, 09 Dec 2016 11:43:05 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 11:43:05 -0500The latest news on Veterans from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/vets-ask-obama-to-pardon-ex-soldiers-with-bad-paper-2016-12Vets ask Obama to pardon thousands of ex-soldiers with 'bad paper' that could affect their military benefitshttp://www.businessinsider.com/vets-ask-obama-to-pardon-ex-soldiers-with-bad-paper-2016-12
Thu, 08 Dec 2016 22:53:00 -0500Liz Fields
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5849dfc3a1a45e23028b45bd-1332/14992317249035e85c64bo.jpg" alt="obama world war II veteran" data-mce-source="Pete Souza/The White House" data-mce-caption="President Barack Obama talks with WWII veteran Kenneth (Rock) Merritt aboard Marine One after departing the 70th French-American Commemoration D-Day Ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, June 6, 2014." />A prominent U.S. veterans organization is making a Hail Mary plea to President Barack Obama in hopes that he&rsquo;ll help thousands of vets before he leaves office and Donald Trump takes over.</span></p>
<p>The Vietnam Veterans of America is asking Obama to issue pardons to post-9/11 veterans who left&nbsp;the military with what&rsquo;s known as &ldquo;bad paper,&rdquo; discharge records reflecting anything from criminal violations to diagnoses of mental disorders.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mcasiwakuni.marines.mil/Portals/112/Docs/sja/discharge%20list.pdf">Bad paper</a> can affect a veteran&rsquo;s ability to take advantage of military benefits like disability, housing, and money for education.</p>
<p><span>Many vets deservedly receive bad paper, but the VVA is focused&nbsp;on&nbsp;the vets whose infractions are a direct result of enduring service-related PTSD, sexual assault, or brain trauma.</span></p>
<p><span>&ldquo;For many injured and ill veterans, these administrative separations and the denial of critical veterans benefits is a life sentence,&rdquo; VVA President John Rowan wrote in an open&nbsp;</span><a href="https://vva.org/programs/government-affairs/an-open-letter-to-the-president-and-the-president-elect/"><span>letter</span></a><span> to Obama and president-elect Trump, released last week.</span></p>
<p><span>The VVA is also putting pressure on the incoming administration&nbsp;by asking Trump to &ldquo;support this initiative and make this pardoning program&rsquo;s success a top priority for his transition team.&rdquo; The organization has not received a response from Obama or Trump.</span></p>
<p>&ldquo;If [post-traumatic stress] is left untreated, that can lead people to [engage in] very disruptive, risky behaviors,&rdquo; said Barbara Van Dahlen, a psychiatrist and founder of Give an Hour, a group that provides free mental health care to veterans. &ldquo;We could get into a fight, we could make bad decisions, we could behave aggressively, we could get abusive to our spouses, we could get hooked on substances. All of those behaviors lead to a dishonorable discharge, potentially.&rdquo;</p>
<p><span>According to an NPR </span><span>and Colorado Public Radio </span><a href="http://www.npr.org/series/465454102/missed-treatment"><span>report</span></a><span>, up to 22,000 Army vets with PTSD or traumatic brain injury have been issued bad paper. And 75 percent of</span><span> veterans diagnosed with PTSD who have unfavorable discharges have been denied appeals, according to a </span><a href="https://www.swords-to-plowshares.org/sites/default/files/Underserved.pdf"><span>report</span></a><span> by Harvard University&rsquo;s Veterans Legal Clinic. </span><span>Marines with PTSD are reportedly 11 times more likely to receive a misconduct discharge and eight times more likely to be discharged for substance abuse, according to the same report.</span></p>
<p><span><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5757379d9105844d018c766f-2400/rtx2evc0.jpg" alt="Vietnam war veterans" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Yuri Gripas" data-mce-caption="Vietnam war veterans among other guests listen to U.S. President Barack Obama at the Memorial Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, U.S., May 30, 2016." /></span></p>
<p><span>The issue of PTSD-related bad paper discharges is not a new one; Congress and military officials have long been aware of the issue. In 2014, then&ndash;Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel issued a memo urging all military corrections boards to apply &ldquo;<a href="http://archive.defense.gov/news/osd009883-14.pdf">liberal consideration</a>&rdquo; to discharge upgrade cases in which&nbsp;the veteran is claiming PTSD.</span></p>
<p><span>The year after the memo was issued, discharge upgrades for Army&nbsp;veterans rose from 3.7 percent to 45, </span><a href="https://www.law.yale.edu/system/files/documents/pdf/unfinishedbusiness.pdf"><span>according</span></a><span> to Yale Law School, though post-9/11 veterans were approved only 23 percent of the time.</span></p>
<p><span>VVA says action and progress for post-9/11 veterans in particular has been too slow. Kris Goldsmith, VVA&rsquo;s assistant director of policy and government affairs, says that the cost and complexity of this issue has delayed or killed bills &mdash; like the Veterans Fairness Act &mdash; that could potentially help vets appeal their bad paper discharges expeditiously.</span></p>
<p><span>During appeals, it&rsquo;s up to the veteran to prove to military discharge appeals boards that their discharge was improper and that their superiors got the initial discharge wrong. But, Goldsmith says, this forces officials to say officers got it wrong, something they&rsquo;re generally not inclined to do.</span></p>
<p><span>Nearly a decade ago, Goldsmith, then an Army sergeant, was discharged with bad papers after failing to show up for duty following a PTSD-related suicide attempt. Since then, he&rsquo;s been fighting the discharge, which precludes him from receiving education funding under the GI Bill.</span></p>
<p><span>&ldquo;This system right now is so broken, and that&rsquo;s why VVA is saying before President Obama leaves office, he needs to just issue a blanket pardon to all bad paper vets who might have PTSD,&rdquo; Goldsmith said. &ldquo;Forcing vets to wait for Congress to act is offensive. None of us waited after 9/11.&rdquo;</span></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/vets-ask-obama-to-pardon-ex-soldiers-with-bad-paper-2016-12#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trailer-martin-scorsese-film-silence-paramount-andrew-garfield-liam-neeson-adam-driver-2016-11">Watch the trailer for the new Martin Scorsese film that took over 20 years to make</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-veterans-build-shelters-for-dakota-access-pipeline-protesters-2016-12US military veterans build shelters for Dakota Access pipeline protesters as the Justice Department vows to protect themhttp://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-veterans-build-shelters-for-dakota-access-pipeline-protesters-2016-12
Fri, 02 Dec 2016 23:03:54 -0500Louise Liu
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/584245b4e02ba730208b7325-2400/undefined" alt="RTSUF7J" data-mce-source="Terray Sylvester/Reuters" /></p><p>US military veterans were building shelters for North Dakota pipeline protesters this week as the Justice Department reaffirmed its commitment to the demonstrators' First Amendment rights and to their safety on Friday.</p>
<p>Protesters have been occupying land near the site of the multibillion-dollar Dakota Access pipeline project for months. As winter begins to set in, authorities have begun <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-dakotas-governor-orders-the-emergency-evacuation-of-thousands-of-standing-rock-protestors-2016-11">warning protesters that they need to leave</a>.</p>
<p>The demonstrators said they're not going anywhere.</p>
<p>More than 2,000 US veterans arrived at the Oceti Sakowin camp in North Dakota on Thursday, and have volunteered to form human shields to protect pipeline activists from police.</p>
<p>The protesters also received a nod from US Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Friday, who said &ldquo;we remain in close communication with law enforcement officials, tribal representatives, and protesters in an effort to reduce tensions and foster dialogue."</p>
<p>Lynch announced that mediators were being sent to the site "to help support constitutional law enforcement, prevent violence, and to preserve peace and liberty in the protest area."</p>
<p>Here are some photos of US veterans lending a hand to protesters.</p><h3>Veterans, who signed up on the Veterans Stand for Standing Rock group's Facebook page, are joining protesters who are determined to protect the sacred land from the Dakota Access pipeline project.</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/584224cde02ba72b318b715b-400-300/veterans-who-signed-up-on-the-veterans-stand-for-standing-rock-groups-facebook-page-are-joining-protesters-who-are-determined-to-protect-the-sacred-land-from-the-dakota-access-pipeline-project.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/military-veterans-human-shield-protecting-dakota-access-protesters-2016-11">Reuters</a></em></p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Members of the Oglala Lakota tribe build a tipi inside the Oceti Sakowin camp.</h3>
<img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5842208fe02ba734008b762b-400-300/members-of-the-oglala-lakota-tribe-build-a-tipi-inside-the-oceti-sakowin-camp.jpg" alt="" />
<br/><br/><h3>State officials on Monday issued an emergency order to evacuate the snowy camp, but later said it will not enforce the decision.</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5842228ae02ba7e5008b7613-400-300/state-officials-on-monday-issued-an-emergency-order-to-evacuate-the-snowy-camp-but-later-said-it-will-not-enforce-the-decision.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p><em>Source: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/military-veterans-human-shield-protecting-dakota-access-protesters-2016-11">Reuters</a></em></p></p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-military-veterans-build-shelters-for-dakota-access-pipeline-protesters-2016-12#/#activists-deliver-straw-to-be-used-for-insulation-at-oceti-sakowin-camp-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-deployment-standing-rock-protest-2016-11Veterans are planning a 'deployment' to Standing Rock to protest the Dakota Access Pipelinehttp://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-deployment-standing-rock-protest-2016-11
Mon, 21 Nov 2016 13:32:35 -0500Adam Linehan
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58333c53ba6eb620008b5937-2400/rtsskvd.jpg" alt="standing rock" data-mce-source="Stephanie Keith/REUTERS" data-mce-caption="Police confront protesters with a rubber bullet gun during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S. November 20, 2016." /></p><p>&ldquo;Most civilians who&rsquo;ve never served in a uniform are gutless worms who&rsquo;ve never been in a fight in their life,&rdquo; Wes Clark Jr. declares. &ldquo;So if we don&rsquo;t stop it, who will?&rdquo;</p>
<p>Clark Jr. is one of the most vociferous opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a controversial 1,170-mile project that, if and when it is completed, will shuttle an estimated 470,000 barrels of crude oil every day from North Dakota to Illinois. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s immoral, and wrong, and dangerous to us all,&rdquo; Clark Jr. adds.</p>
<p>He doesn&rsquo;t fit the traditional tree-hugger mold. He&rsquo;s not a hippie. Nor is he a member of the Lakota or Dakota tribes, the two Native American group known collectively as the Sioux. He&rsquo;s a former Army officer and the organizer of an upcoming three-day deployment of U.S. military veterans to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in southern North Dakota, the site of an escalating months-long standoff between law enforcement-backed security contractors and activists that has so far resulted in multiple injuries, more than 500 arrests, and a United Nations investigation of potential human rights abuses.</p>
<p>According to an &ldquo;operations order&rdquo; for the planned engagement, posted to social media in mid-November, &ldquo;First Americans have served in the Unites States Military, defending the soil of our homelands, at a greater percentage than any other group of Americans. There is no other people more deserving of veteran support.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Clark Jr. is a 47-year-old writer, political commentator, and activist based in California. Joining him in the fight is Michael A. Wood Jr., a Marine Corps veteran and former Baltimore police officer who retired his badge in 2014 to become an advocate for national police reform. Earlier this month, the duo formed <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1136540643060285/?active_tab=discussion" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Veterans Stand For Standing Rock</a> with the hope of drawing scores of veterans, as well as fire fighters, ex-law enforcement officers, emergency medical personnel and others to the battleground for a three-day &ldquo;deployment&rdquo; in early December to &ldquo;prevent progress on the Dakota Access Pipeline and draw national attention to the human rights warriors of the Sioux tribes.&rdquo; Both men say they&rsquo;re prepared to take a bullet, rubber or otherwise, for a cause they believe should be of critical importance to any patriotic American.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This country is repressing our people,&rdquo; Wood Jr. says. &ldquo;If we&rsquo;re going to be heroes, if we&rsquo;re really going to be those veterans that this country praises, well, then we need to do the things that we actually said we&rsquo;re going to do when we took the oath to defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.&rdquo;</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58189651362ca427008b6142-2000/ap16300620801576.jpg" alt="dakota access pipeline protesters" data-mce-source="Associated Press/James MacPherson" data-mce-caption="Protesters against the construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline block a highway in near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016." /></p>
<p>The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation was originally established as part of the Great Sioux Reservation under Article 2 of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of April 29, 1868. In 1877, the U.S. government initiated the still ongoing process of chipping away and dividing the land it had granted to the people of the Lakota and Dakota nations, with significant reductions taking place in 1889 and then again during the 1950s and 1960s, when the Army Corps of Engineers built five large dams along the Missouri River, uprooting villages and sinking 200,000 acres of land below water.</p>
<p>When the Corps of Engineers returned to Standing Rock in 2015, it was to assess whether or not it should approve a path for the Dakota Access Pipeline across the Missouri River, a project that would involve construction on some of the land that had been stripped from the Sioux, who still regard it as sacred &mdash; although, that fact <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/09/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-timeline-sioux-standing-rock-jill-stein" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">seems to have been ignored, maybe even intentionally</a>, in the assessment.</p>
<p>Because the Corps neglected to consult the Standing Rock Sioux, as it was required to do under the <a href="http://www.achp.gov/106summary.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">National Historic Preservation Act (Section 106)</a>, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Interior, and the American Council on Historic Preservation all criticized the assessment, but the project was eventually approved. The decision was a major victory for Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas-based parent company of Dakota Access LLC, which estimates the pipeline will bring $156 million in sales and income taxes to state and local governments and create thousands of temporary jobs.</p>
<p>For the Standing Rock Sioux, the Dakota Access project poses two immediate threats. First, the pipeline would run beneath Lake Oahe, the reservoir that <a href="http://indigenousrising.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Dakota-Access-2nd-DEA-cmts-3-11-16.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">provides drinking water to the people of Standing Rock</a>. (<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/previously-proposed-route-dakota-access-pipeline-rejected/story?id=43274356" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">An earlier route</a> that avoided native lands was ruled out in part because it posed a danger to drinking water.) Second, <a href="http://rabbitsliketrumpets.typepad.com/gov.uscourts.dcd.180660.6.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">according to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe</a>, the building of the pipeline would destroy the sacred spots and burial grounds that were overlooked in the Corps&rsquo; assessment.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58189607362ca4892e8b5d7d-2000/ap16302520935741.jpg" alt="dakota access pipeline protest" data-mce-source="Associated Press/James MacPherson" data-mce-caption="The burned hulks of heavy trucks sit on Highway 1806 near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Friday, Oct. 28, near the spot where protesters of the Dakota Access pipeline were evicted from private property a day earlier." /></p>
<p>But as the protests have intensified, and more outsiders, including members of more than 200 Native American tribes from across the North America, have become involved, Standing Rock has, for some, come to represent something much bigger than a struggle between a disenfranchised people and a government-backed, billion-dollar corporation. It&rsquo;s a battle to save humanity from itself.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Mother Earth&rsquo;s axis is off and it&rsquo;s never going back,&rdquo; says Phyllis Young, a Sioux tribal elder. &ldquo;And we have to help keep it in balance for as long as we can. I am a mother and a grandmother. Those are my credentials to ensure a future with clean drinking water &mdash; a future of human dignity, human rights, and human survival.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Young grew up on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. She has been present at many of the protests and says she&rsquo;s seen people brutalized at the hands of the security contractors and law enforcement officials guarding the land where the drilling is set to take place. It was Young who got Clark Jr involved. In late summer, she was in Washington, D.C., lobbying for the military to promote an alternative (and scientifically dubious) clean energy source called low-energy nuclear reaction, when she heard of a military veteran who was a forceful advocate for environmental conservation. Clark Jr. was eager to help.</p>
<p>He spent weeks trying to assemble a legal team for the Standing Rock Sioux, and even contacted <a href="http://independentdiplomat.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Independent Diplomat</a>, a nonprofit organization that helps governments navigate complex diplomatic processes. &ldquo;I pulled all of the levers, and none of them worked,&rdquo; Clark Jr. recalls. Then, in early November, the plan dawned on him: He&rsquo;d bring his fellow veterans. Lots of them. And they&rsquo;d come prepared to put their lives on the line.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not going out there to get in a fight with anyone,&rdquo; Clark Jr. says. &ldquo;They can feel free to beat us up, but we&rsquo;re 100% nonviolence.&rdquo;</p>
<p>You may have heard of Clark Jr.&rsquo;s father. Wesley Clark Sr. retired from the Army in 2000 as a four-star general. His career began in the jungles of Vietnam, <a href="http://archive.boston.com/news/politics/president/clark/articles/2003/11/16/boy_from_little_rock_chooses_military_path/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">where he was shot four times</a>during an enemy ambush near Saigon, and culminated in a posting as Supreme Allied Commander Europe during the Kosovo War. In 2004, he ran for the Democratic Party presidential nomination on platform that criticized the Iraq War and called for measures to combat climate change. Clark Jr., who was born in Florida while Clark Sr. was in Vietnam and grew up on military bases throughout the United States and Europe, seems to have inherited both his father&rsquo;s commanding spirit and his progressive ideals.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58333603ba6eb601688b48f5-2400/rtsskru.jpg" alt="standing rock" data-mce-source="Stephanie Keith/REUTERS" data-mce-caption="Police use a water cannon on a protester during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S. November 20, 2016." /></p>
<p>Clark Jr. had just graduated from Georgetown&rsquo;s School of Foreign Service when he joined the Army as a cavalry officer. He served on active duty from 1992&ndash;1996 &mdash; &nbsp;&ldquo;nothing dangerous,&rdquo; he says. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was living in New York City, and after seeing the towers fall, he decided to re-enlist. &ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m going back in. I&rsquo;m going to go in there and fuck people up,&rsquo;&rdquo; he recalls.</p>
<p>It was Clark Sr., the decorated war hero, who convinced him not to. As Clark Jr. recalls, his father foresaw U.S. military intervention in Iraq and warned that as a soldier he would be fighting a war that had nothing to do with defeating al Qaeda. &ldquo;He was right, but I&rsquo;ll tell you, I&rsquo;ve never felt worse about a decision in my life,&rdquo; Clark Jr. says.</p>
<p>Clark Jr. may never have served in combat, but when he talks about Standing Rock, he sounds like a battle-hardened general. This isn&rsquo;t his first foray into boots-on-the-ground environmental activism. He&rsquo;s currently working with an organization called Climate Mobilization, which is focused on &ldquo;building and supporting a social movement that causes the US federal government to commence WWII-scale climate mobilization.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But he&rsquo;s perhaps best known as a co-host of the political web series The Young Turks. On the The Young Turks website, Clark Jr.<a href="https://tytnetwork.com/about/host-bios/wes-clark-jr/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> is described</a> as an Army veteran &ldquo;currently trying to save human civilization from climate change.&rdquo; The impending confrontation at Standing Rock, he says, will be &ldquo;the most important event up to this time in human history.&rdquo; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Vets Standing For Standing Rock was announced via an official sounding letter formatted like a five-paragraph military operation order, breaking down the &ldquo;opposing forces&rdquo; &mdash; &ldquo;Morton County Sheriff&rsquo;s office combined with multiple state police agencies and private security contractors&rdquo; &mdash; &ldquo;Mission,&rdquo; &ldquo;Execution&rdquo; and &ldquo;Logistics,&rdquo; among other things. A packing list virtually mirrors the ones issued to soldiers preparing to deploy to the field (minus the weapons). But there are also parts of the document that read like a revolutionary manifesto.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5829fe0d691e88d0118b671e-2400/rtx2ta14.jpg" alt="dapl dakota access pipeline muskogee" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Stephanie Keith" data-mce-caption="A man from the Muskogee tribe looks at the Oceti Sakowin shrouded in mist during a protest against the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S. November 11, 2016." /></p>
<p>Under the section titled &ldquo;Friendly Forces,&rdquo; for example, the op order states, &ldquo;we are there to put our bodies on the line, no matter the physical cost, in complete nonviolence to provide a clear representation to all Americans of where evil resides.&rdquo;The document was accompanied by a link to <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/veterans-for-standing-rock-nodapl" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">a GoFundMe campaign</a> that has raised nearly $20,000 of its $100,000 goal since it was created on Nov. 11. The money, Clark Jr. says, will only be used for helping volunteers with transportation costs and then bailing those who are arrested out of jail. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Wood Jr. says the op-order was Clark Jr.&rsquo;s idea, but the two men agree that organizing like a military unit is the smartest approach, especially because most of the people expected to join them on the ground have served.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s simple and we have clearly defined goals, so people don&rsquo;t get caught up in the confusion,&rdquo; says Wood Jr., who served with the Baltimore Police Department for more than a decade. &ldquo;One of the issues the police are going to face is that our level of planning and coordination is vastly superior to theirs, so they may end up with a problem when it comes to that.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Here then is the plan: On Dec. 4, Clark Jr. and Wood Jr., along with a group of veterans and other folks in the &ldquo;bravery business,&rdquo; as Wood Jr. puts it &mdash; 500 total is the goal, but they&rsquo;re hoping for more &mdash; will muster at Standing Rock. The following morning they will join members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, including Young, for a traditional healing ceremony. With an eye toward the media, old military uniforms will be donned so that if the veterans are brutalized by the police, they are brutalized not as ordinary citizens, but as people who once served the government they are protesting against.</p>
<p>Then body armor, ear plugs, and gas masks will be issued to those who didn&rsquo;t bring their own. Bagpipes will play, and traditional Sioux war songs will be sung. The music will continue as everyone marches together to the banks of the Missouri, on the other side of which a line of guards in riot gear will be standing ready with rifles, mace, batons, and dogs. Then, the veterans and their allies &mdash; or at least the ones who are brave enough &mdash; will lock arms and cross the river in a &ldquo;massive line&rdquo; for their &ldquo;first encounter&rdquo; with the &ldquo;opposing forces.&rdquo;</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/582a56e446e27ab6608b61f3-2400/2016-11-14t233405z_1_lynxmpecad1hr_rtroptp_4_north-dakota-pipeline.jpg" alt="Dakota Access pipeline protesters" data-mce-source="Stephanie Keith/Reuters" data-mce-caption="Dakota Access pipeline protesters" /></p>
<p>The goal is to make it to the drilling pad and surround it, arm in arm. That will require making it through the line of guards, who have repelled other such attempts with a level of physical force Sioux tribal members and protesters have described as &ldquo;excessive&rdquo; &mdash; claims that recently prompted <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/31/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-investigation-human-rights-abuses" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">a United Nations investigation.</a> Of course, that&rsquo;s what the body armor and gas masks are for. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have those people who will recognize that they&rsquo;re not willing to take a bullet, and those who recognize that they are,&rdquo; says Wood Jr. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s okay if some of them step back, but Wes and I have no intention of doing so.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Of course, as most veterans know full well, even the best plans go out the window the moment the shit hits the fan. It seems probable that the group will be met by fierce resistance from those charged with keeping people out of the construction site. Despite<a href="http://www.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/News-Release-Article-View/Article/1003593/statement-regarding-the-dakota-access-pipeline/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> a recent decision by the Corps of Engineers</a> to delay further work on the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners is still hoping to complete the project by January.</p>
<p>The segment that will cross beneath the Missouri at Standing Rock is the last major piece of the puzzle. Strengthening the resolve of the company&rsquo;s executives is the fact that Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren donated more than $100,000 to elect Donald Trump, and Trump himself owns stock in the company. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m 100% sure that the pipeline will be approved by a Trump administration,&rdquo; Warren <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/dakota-pipeline-protests/what-will-trump-presidency-mean-dakota-access-pipeline-n682746" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">told NBC News on Nov. 12.</a></p>
<p>Nonetheless, Clark Jr. and Wood Jr. remain undeterred. If anything, the likelihood of approval only makes them more determined. After all, this is war.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Joint Chiefs of Staff labeled the climate emergency as the number one security threat to the country, and they&rsquo;ve been labeling it that for years,&rdquo; Clark Jr. says. &ldquo;All you need to do is put an overlay on any map in the world where there&rsquo;s a water and crisis and you&rsquo;re going to see massive political violence in that location. And unless we act, we&rsquo;re going to be dealing with that exact same situation right here in the United States.&rdquo;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-bolivia-declares-state-of-emergency-due-to-drought-water-shortage-2016-11" >Bolivia declares state of emergency due to drought and water shortage</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-deployment-standing-rock-protest-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/americans-scared-government-conspiracy-theories-north-dakota-crash-biggest-fears-2016-11">Here's what Americans fear most in 2016</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who-were-in-the-military-2016-1122 famous people who served in the militaryhttp://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who-were-in-the-military-2016-11
Sat, 19 Nov 2016 10:20:00 -0500Business Insider
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5825ec4c691e888d008b6377-2400/ap5801010470.jpg" alt="Elvis" data-mce-source="Associated Press" data-link="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Germany-Ent-/36ab62329de5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/53/0" /></p><p></p>
<p>While some famous names are well-known for their stint in the military, like Elvis and Chuck Norris, others on this list might surprise you.</p>
<p>Here are 22 famous people who served in the US military in some capacity:</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/american-presidents-who-served-in-the-military-2016-6?redirect=/american-presidents-who-served-in-the-military-2016-6" >29 American presidents who served in the military</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>DON'T MISS:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/famous-people-who-served-on-d-day-2016-6" >http://www.businessinsider.com/famous-people-who-served-on-d-day-2016-6</a></strong></p>
<h3>Drew Carey</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5825dd9746e27a705a8b5595-400-300/drew-carey.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>In 1981, Drew Carey <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/60E4OeE3k" target="_blank">entered the United States Marine Corps Reserve</a>, a stint that lasted six years.</p>
<p><span>It was during his service that he first started performing stand-up comedy.</span></p>
<p>"While in the Marine Reserves, I was looking for a way to make some more money, and it was suggested that I try using my jokes," <a href="http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veteran-drew-carey.html" target="_blank">he later said</a>.</p>
<p>Carey, who teamed up with the United Services Organization, has since <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/09/29/drew-carey-performs-at-base-in-iraq/" target="_blank">visited military bases</a> in Iraq to perform comedy for troops.</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Hugh Hefner</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5825dde246e27a55008b61d5-400-300/hugh-hefner.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>Before Playboy existed, Hefner had a successful career in the military.</p>
<p>In 1944, after graduating high school, Hefner enlisted in the Army as an infantry clerk.</p>
<p>He frequently <a href="http://www.playboyenterprises.com/home/content.cfm?content=t_template&amp;packet=00061D22-C172-1C7A-9B578304E50A011A&amp;MmenuFlag=profile" target="_blank">contributed cartoons</a> for various military newspapers before he was discharged in 1946.</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Bea Arthur</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5825e0a646e27a28008b61ca-400-300/bea-arthur.jpg" alt="" />
<p> <p>Before she landed a lead role in "Golden Girls," Bea Arthur <a href="http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/persons-of-prominence.html#R" target="_blank">served in the Marine Corps.</a></p>
<p>Though <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey3xn8Wdhig&amp;feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">she once flat out denied it</a>, The Smoking Gun <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/bea-arthur-was-truck-driving-marine" target="_blank">dug up files</a> proving the actress had served 30 months in the Marines as a typist and truck driver.</p>
<p>According a <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/bea-arthur-was-truck-driving-marine" target="_blank">personal account</a> detailing her reasons for joining, a then 21-year-old Arthur said she "heard last week that enlistments for women in the Marines were open, so decided the only thing to do was to join."</p>
<p>On an obtained <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/bea-arthur-marine-file?page=2" target="_blank">personality appraisal sheet</a>, Arthur was described as both argumentative and frank.</p>
<p>She was initially a typist in Washington D.C., and was then stationed at air stations in Virginia and North Carolina. Arthur was honorably discharged in 1945 with the title of staff sergeant.</p> </p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who-were-in-the-military-2016-11#/#chuck-norris-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who-were-in-the-military-2016-1122 famous people who served in the militaryhttp://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who-were-in-the-military-2016-11
Tue, 15 Nov 2016 09:04:00 -0500Áine Cain
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5825ec4c691e888d008b6377-2400/ap5801010470.jpg" alt="Elvis" data-mce-source="Associated Press" data-link="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Germany-Ent-/36ab62329de5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/53/0" /></p><p></p>
<p>While some famous names are well-known for their stint in the military, like Elvis and Chuck Norris, others on this list might surprise you.</p>
<p>Here are 22 famous people who served in the US military in some capacity:</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/american-presidents-who-served-in-the-military-2016-6?redirect=/american-presidents-who-served-in-the-military-2016-6" >29 American presidents who served in the military</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>DON'T MISS:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/famous-people-who-served-on-d-day-2016-6" >http://www.businessinsider.com/famous-people-who-served-on-d-day-2016-6</a></strong></p>
<h3>Drew Carey</h3>
<img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5825dd9746e27a705a8b5595-400-300/drew-carey.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>In 1981, Drew Carey <a href="http://www.webcitation.org/60E4OeE3k" target="_blank">entered the United States Marine Corps Reserve</a>, a stint that lasted six years.</p>
<p><span>It was during his service that he first started performing stand-up comedy.</span></p>
<p>"While in the Marine Reserves, I was looking for a way to make some more money, and it was suggested that I try using my jokes," <a href="http://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veteran-drew-carey.html" target="_blank">he later said</a>.</p>
<p>Carey, who teamed up with the United Services Organization, has since <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/09/29/drew-carey-performs-at-base-in-iraq/" target="_blank">visited military bases</a> in Iraq to perform comedy for troops.</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Hugh Hefner</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5825dde246e27a55008b61d5-400-300/hugh-hefner.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>Before Playboy existed, Hefner had a successful career in the military.</p>
<p>In 1944, after graduating high school, Hefner enlisted in the Army as an infantry clerk.</p>
<p>He frequently <a href="http://www.playboyenterprises.com/home/content.cfm?content=t_template&amp;packet=00061D22-C172-1C7A-9B578304E50A011A&amp;MmenuFlag=profile" target="_blank">contributed cartoons</a> for various military newspapers before he was discharged in 1946.</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Bea Arthur</h3>
<img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5825e0a646e27a28008b61ca-400-300/bea-arthur.jpg" alt="" />
<p> <p>Before she landed a lead role in "Golden Girls," Bea Arthur <a href="http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/persons-of-prominence.html#R" target="_blank">served in the Marine Corps.</a></p>
<p>Though <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey3xn8Wdhig&amp;feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">she once flat out denied it</a>, The Smoking Gun <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/bea-arthur-was-truck-driving-marine" target="_blank">dug up files</a> proving the actress had served 30 months in the Marines as a typist and truck driver.</p>
<p>According a <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/bea-arthur-was-truck-driving-marine" target="_blank">personal account</a> detailing her reasons for joining, a then 21-year-old Arthur said she "heard last week that enlistments for women in the Marines were open, so decided the only thing to do was to join."</p>
<p>On an obtained <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/bea-arthur-marine-file?page=2" target="_blank">personality appraisal sheet</a>, Arthur was described as both argumentative and frank.</p>
<p>She was initially a typist in Washington D.C., and was then stationed at air stations in Virginia and North Carolina. Arthur was honorably discharged in 1945 with the title of staff sergeant.</p> </p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/celebrities-who-were-in-the-military-2016-11#/#chuck-norris-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/drexel-hamilton-hires-service-disabled-vets-2016-11A Wall Street firm is giving service-disabled vets the 'chance to live the American dream'http://www.businessinsider.com/drexel-hamilton-hires-service-disabled-vets-2016-11
Sun, 13 Nov 2016 09:00:00 -0500Business Insider
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58252f5546e27a18048b615e-454/jerry.jpg" alt="Jerry" data-mce-source="Drexel Hamilton" /></p><p>Jerry Majetich completed four tours in Iraq.</p>
<p>It was on his last mission, when he was working for the psychological operations division in the US Marine Corps, that his vehicle ran over a roadside bomb.</p>
<p>His body was on fire, and when he got out of the vehicle he was shot four times. One-hundred percent of his face and 37% of the surface area of his body was burned, he lost both ears, his nose, and some fingers, and his abdomen and intestines were ruptured, among other injuries.</p>
<p>He spent 22 months in a hospital and has endured 74 operations and counting.</p>
<p>When he finally retired from service in 2007, he said in an interview with Business Insider, his wife left him, and he became a single father of three children and $1.3 million in debt.</p>
<p>He didn't think he would have trouble finding work. He had received a degree in finance with a 3.98 grade-point average and had a decorated military record. Getting interviews proved to be difficult, however, and when he was invited in, he said, "the interview was over even before it started."</p>
<p>"I was really motivated, but nobody would take me seriously because of my injuries," he said. "To feel forgotten was very painful."</p>
<p>Matt Murawski, a soft-spoken veteran from Georgia, had a lot of responsibility on active duty. He was in charge of 120 soldiers, 20 artillerymen, 15 US contractors, and 500 Afghan soldiers whom he was mentoring to take over security in the area. He was also in charge of mentoring the mayor, judge, and police force of a small town in the mountains of Afghanistan.</p>
<p>US Army vet Scott Smiley is blind in both eyes from an explosion in Mosul, Iraq. He has a master's degree from Duke University and completed an Ironman long-distance triathlon in Hawaii against all odds. He too, wasn't able to find work after leaving the Army, saying "nobody would hire him."</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/545d3c3f69bedd8834648df8-2400/iraq-war-3.jpg" alt="Iraq War" data-mce-source="Lucas Jackson/Reuters" data-mce-caption="oldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division rest while waiting to pack their weapons for shipment back to the United States at Camp Virginia, Kuwait on December 19, 2011." />Drexel Hamilton wants to change that.</p>
<h2>A new start</h2>
<p>The broker-dealer Drexel Hamilton was founded by a disabled veteran named Lawrence Doll in 2007. Doll served in the Vietnam War in 1968 and 1969 and was seriously wounded while he was there. "It was a difficult time," he said in an interview with Business Insider, "because the country was mostly against the war in Vietnam. But people helped me &mdash; and I never forgot that."</p>
<p>He, in turn, wanted to help veterans who were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, especially the injured ones, as he knew they had a difficult time finding work.</p>
<p>Doll was an aspiring football player and had football scholarships when the Vietnam War interrupted his dream. "That was my love," he said. "But here I am. I think God had a different idea for me. Maybe this is where I'm supposed to be."</p>
<p>The firm's vision lies in "pairing a vet with a vet," wherein an experienced Wall Street industry professional pairs with a military veteran on the team. It says that of 108 employees, about 40% are veterans and just over half of those are veterans disabled in service.</p>
<p>Spending time with Doll, the firm's chairman and founder; Billy Mingione, its head of equities; and James Cahill, its president, it's clear that for many the firm is like a family. Doll and Cahill refer to the employees as their kids. "They're like my children," Doll said. Mingione has hosted vets for Thanksgiving and other holidays. And Doll walked Majetich's new fianc&eacute;e down the aisle at their wedding.</p>
<p>Cahill was in retirement when he met Doll and learned of the company's mission. Now 79, Cahill is a 30-year Wall Street veteran who lost his son in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.</p>
<p><img class="float_left float_right" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/582531da691e882a4e8b55ef-492/james cahill.jpg" alt="James Cahill" data-mce-source="drexel hamilton" />He served as managing director of Salomon Brothers (acquired by Citi), managing director at Lehman Brothers, and head of fixed-income operations at Keefe Bruyette &amp; Woods.</p>
<p>Hailing from a family of blue-collar workers, Cahill was the first in his family to attend college and took night classes at Fordham University for six years to complete his degree.</p>
<p>"That's what I tell the guys who are trying to come up the hard way," he said. "You can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. Go at it and show people you can do it."</p>
<h2>Go at it</h2>
<p>Mingione is a fellow industry vet. With 19 years of experience on Wall Street, he spent over a decade at Fidelity and ran corporate access at Collins Stewart.</p>
<p>The firm operates in capital markets, sales and trading, and investment banking. The firm's equity-research practice, which began in 2011, focuses on aerospace and defense, telecommunications, media and technology, financial services, energy, and technical analysis.</p>
<p>Drexel Hamilton is particularly proud of its expertise in aerospace and defense, of which the team says veterans have firsthand experience.</p>
<p>Who better to understand and analyze the aerospace and defense industry than a former F-18 fighter pilot?</p>
<p>"We don't walk in the door saying, 'We're veterans, so you should do business with us,'" Mingione said. "We walk in the door saying, 'Hey, we've got a great research product and we have great talent.' And they're much more willing to consume it from us because they like us and want to do business with us."</p>
<p>"What we've found is that the vets don't want charity &mdash; they don't want to beg," Cahill said. "These are heroes. And we put them back with their family and give them the chance to live the American dream the way I was able to do it."</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/582530d0691e88014a8b561e-2400/flags.jpg" alt="flags" data-mce-source="Drexel Hamilton" />Drexel's office is different from other offices on Wall Street. Flags hang in the reception, and a large painting of a World War II-era fighter plane adorns the wall. Employees hang framed pictures of their unit patches, worn on their uniforms while they served, on the walls next to their desks, and a giant map of Iraq hangs on the trading floor, serving as a reminder of colleagues who have served.</p>
<p>Drexel Hamilton is a fixture at industry conferences and partners with other veteran initiatives on the Street, including Wall Street Warfighters. The firm hires veterans on a rotational program, and new veteran employees rotate among the various businesses, each paired with a Wall Street veteran, and determine which is the best fit. For vets who don't get recruited, the firm aims to be a resource to the rest of the Street and use its contacts at other institutions' veteran initiatives to place other hires.</p>
<p>Ben Downing, a capital-markets associate at Drexel Hamilton, served in Iraq with the Army in 2008 and 2009. Tall and broad-shouldered, he was quick to explain the skills that military veterans possess that translate over to financial services.</p>
<p>Leadership, teamwork, initiative. The same skills, he said, as what is taught in an MBA class or any executive leadership training class. "But those are things we learn in basic training," he said. "Those are the building blocks in the military that we start off with."</p>
<h2>Leadership, teamwork, initiative</h2>
<p>Downing also points to the ability of veterans to sort through a huge amount of data quickly and make it actionable. "It's exactly what happens on Wall Street," he said. "You need that tactical and strategical outlook, and we're used to being agile thinkers."</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/58253145691e882c4e8b5613-924/jerry2 2.jpg" alt="Jerry2 2" data-mce-source="Drexel Hamilton" />He talks about the adaptability of veterans to uncomfortable situations and locations. For example, he recently went on a last-minute trip to Rwanda for a capital-markets meeting. "Plus," Murawski joked, "We already have all of our vaccinations."</p>
<p>Majetich sees a lot of similarities between his role in psychological operations with the Marines and his current role in business development at Drexel Hamilton.</p>
<p>In the Marines, he says, he was tasked with "winning the hearts and minds" of the local population. He often had to sit down with villagers and have conversations. Over time he became friends with locals, and they eventually started to provide him with relevant information. It was intelligence gathering, not too dissimilar from corporate access at Drexel Hamilton. But here, he jokes, there's no fear of getting killed.</p>
<p>That's not to say it's an easy transition. There are the challenges of adapting to a new life after war, especially after sustaining potentially devastating injuries &mdash; mentally, emotionally, and physically. It's also a matter of culture.</p>
<p>"We're not good self-promoters," Downing said. In the military, you are rated by how good your soldiers are rather then by how good you are. But in the corporate world, it's a complete 180 in the way you're supposed to promote yourself.</p>
<p>Initially, Drexel Hamilton recruited by visiting hospitals and talking to the "kids," Doll said. "Sometimes they hold a degree of bitterness. But if you're a gladiator, you take a chance. You need to be able to move past it."</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5825d1d5691e88014a8b5695-911/266236-1024x683.jpg" alt="MK11 sniper" data-mce-source="US Marine Corps" data-mce-caption="A US Marine Corps scout sniper fires his MK-11 sniper rifle in the first stage of a three-day platoon competition in Djibouti." />Other programs dedicated to helping military veterans include Wall Street Warfighters and VOWS, or Veterans on Wall Street.</p>
<h2>More help needed</h2>
<p>The Philadelphia-based Wall Street Warfighters is a six-month course that includes classwork, fieldwork, exam preparation, mentorship, and internships for veterans. The foundation covers all training, travel, business clothing, housing, and food.</p>
<p>VOWS is similarly committed to providing support and training for veterans as well as recruitment initiatives; its partners include Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC.</p>
<p>Drexel Hamilton is doing its part to help veterans, but it's clear that much still needs to be done. According to the Census Bureau, 21.3 million veterans are living in the US and Puerto Rico, making up 9% of the civilian population.</p>
<p>Banks and nonbanks alike are stepping up with initiatives to hire veterans. In 2011, the White House launched a nationwide program to support service members, veterans, and their families. Through the initiative, more than 50 companies <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/05/12/joining-forces-committing-employ-our-nations-service-members">have pledged</a> to hire more than 110,000 veterans and military spouses combined over the next five years.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drexel-hamilton-hires-service-disabled-vets-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/inventors-killed-inventions-titanic-marie-curie-hang-glide-2016-11">7 inventors who were killed by their own inventions</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/number-of-ptsd-cases-among-military-veterans-in-10-years-2016-11Study estimates the number of PTSD cases among military veterans in 10 yearshttp://www.businessinsider.com/number-of-ptsd-cases-among-military-veterans-in-10-years-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 20:07:00 -0500Mohammad S. Jalali
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57a120ec4321f122008bcacc-2400/rtx159os.jpg" alt="PTSD" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson" /></p><p>Post-traumatic stress disorder is a serious public health challenge. It is estimated that about <a href="http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/how-common-is-ptsd.asp">eight million</a> people in the U.S. (2.5 percent of the total population) suffer from it.</p>
<p>This rate jumps to about <a href="http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/how-common-is-ptsd.asp">11 to 20 percent</a> among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who suffer from diagnosed or undiagnosed PTSD.</p>
<p>Affected individuals might lose their career or family or even commit <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15985839">suicide</a> due to the consequences of PTSD.</p>
<p>The effects go beyond the individuals coping with it, extending to their family, friends, colleagues and communities.</p>
<p>Both military personnel and veterans can be affected by PTSD. However, the exact prevalence of PTSD among these two groups is unknown. This not only makes it hard to know how many people actually have PTSD but also makes it even harder to project how many will in the future. And if we don&rsquo;t know how many people actually have PTSD, it can be hard to find out what policies work best to mitigate it.</p>
<p>To address these concerns, my colleagues Navid Ghaffarzadegan and Alireza Ebrahimvandi at Virginia Tech and I decided to take a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_science">systems science</a> approach which lets us study how parts of a large system, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, interconnect.</p>
<p>We developed a simulation model to project the prevalence of PTSD by 2025 among military personnel and veterans and to find out what policies actually reduce the burden. Our study presenting the model was recently <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161405">published</a> in PLOS ONE.</p>
<h2>The challenge of estimating PTSD prevalence</h2>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5643a5be9dd7cc70408be0b3-2400/ap110720085668.jpg" alt="soldier PTSD app tablet" data-mce-source="AP" data-mce-caption="Sgt. Mark Miranda, a public affairs specialist stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, demonstrates the use of a program for tablet computers and smart phones that is designed to help calm symptoms of PTSD." /></p>
<p>Because screening of PTSD is based on self-reported surveys, estimating its true prevalence among veterans and current military personnel is hard to do. Answers to surveys can suffer from patients&rsquo; errors.</p>
<p>But more importantly, some PTSD patients may intentionally underplay their mental health condition to avoid being labeled as mentally ill. In a few cases, patients may <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bpO-B5B_LsoC&amp;pg=PT141">exaggerate</a> their problems for motives of secondary gain, such as disability compensation.</p>
<p>Our task was to put all of this information together to gain a true sense of the future prevalence of PTSD among military personnel and veterans.</p>
<h2>PTSD is a multi-organizational challenge</h2>
<p>Another challenge is that we are talking about two different populations: people currently in the military, and veterans.</p>
<p>The VA and the military are two systems within a larger system. They establish different policies, which may result in improvements in their own sectors, but are not so effective in the larger system. For instance, policies implemented in the early stages of a person&rsquo;s military career, when combat readiness is a major concern, can cause serious consequences years after separation from the military.</p>
<p>In systems science, this is called &ldquo;shifting the burden.&rdquo; Unless the military and the VA come together to develop integrated policies, the big picture of the system will be missed by disjointed policies implemented in each organization.</p>
<p>Since PTSD is a multi-organizational challenge, estimates should take both populations into account simultaneously, which is what we did in our model.</p>
<h2>Simulating the burden of PTSD</h2>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57f570599bd9786f018b513d-2400/rtx159pw (1).jpg" alt="police PTSD" data-mce-source="Lucy Nicholson/Reuters" data-mce-caption="U.S. military veterans listen to speeches." /></p>
<p>Our model includes both military personnel and veterans affected by PTSD in a &ldquo;system of systems.&rdquo; It uses historical data on PTSD prevalence among military personnel and veterans from the DOD, the Institute of Medicine, the VA and other sources, from 2000 to 2014. This let us validate our model and generate a more exact estimate of PTSD prevalence.</p>
<p>Our approach also allows us to ask &ldquo;what-if&rdquo; questions about the consequences of current policies &ndash; such as what if we focus solely on improving screening or improving screening and treatment.</p>
<p>Then we used the model to forecast PTSD prevalence over the next decade under several scenarios. These scenarios are based on common &ldquo;what-ifs,&rdquo; including different levels of U.S. involvement in future wars and improvements in prevention, screening and treatment.</p>
<h2>What happens if we fight another war?</h2>
<p>In an optimistic scenario where 1 percent of all military personnel are deployed to combat zones (which reflects deployment in 2014) that no war happens in the next decade, we estimate that 7 percent of military personnel and 10 percent of veterans will have PTSD by 2025.</p>
<p>But that could increase to 20 percent in the military and more than 11 percent among veterans in 2025 if the U.S. gets involved in a war requiring 5 percent deployment of all military personnel on battlefield. For perspective, from 2001 to 2014, on average, 6.6 percent were deployed annually. Larger wars with higher deployment rates will noticeably increase the prevalence of PTSD.</p>
<p>We also estimated the delay in mitigating the effects of a hypothetical war. Let&rsquo;s assume that the U.S. involves in a five-year war with 10 percent troop deployment (similar to the maximum deployment in Iraq in 2008).</p>
<p>After the end of this hypothetical war, it will take about 40 years for PTSD prevalence to go back to its initial rate. This estimation shows how long the effects of war can endure.</p>
<h2>What policies work best?</h2>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/56748fe872f2c12a008b6f2c-911/military1.jpg" alt="military" data-mce-source="Cpl. Andre Dakis/USMC" /></p>
<p>We also tried to get a sense of what policies work best at mitigating the problem of PTSD. Using the model, we examined the long-term effects of policies within the individual components of the system, the VA and the DOD, as well as across the entire system.</p>
<p>We found that, before and during wars, prevention interventions (focusing on resiliency-related training) are the most effective policy to decrease the prevalence of PTSD. Improving resiliency can work as a &ldquo;vaccine&rdquo; or early treatment before the onset of the cascading effects of PTSD.</p>
<p>However, social barriers such as the stigma of PTSD are still in place, affecting <a href="https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/102540/Ghaffarzadegan%26Larson2015USAMDJ_PTSD%20Vicious%20CyclesPublished.pdf?sequence=1">willingness</a> to receive early treatment.</p>
<p>Overall, our results show that in a post-war period there is no easy solution for overcoming the problem of PTSD, and the current screening and treatment policies used by the VA and the DOD must be revolutionized to have any noticeable effect.</p>
<p>The VA and the DOD should work together and try to offer timely service to patients. However, we showed that they cannot do much to decrease health care costs. These are the consequences of wars.</p>
<figure></figure>
<p>We hope that the findings of this study will help the military, the VA, and other government entities identify more effective strategies. The results also show the importance of effective interaction among these large entities. We have provided the model <a href="https://forio.com/simulate/jalali/ptsd-simulation/simulation">online</a>, in an interactive interface and easy-to-interpret fashion, for the use of the public and policymakers.</p>
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mohammad-s-jalali-297477">Mohammad S. Jalali</a>, Research Faculty, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/massachusetts-institute-of-technology-1193">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fighting-another-war-how-many-military-personnel-and-veterans-will-have-ptsd-in-2025-65542">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/65542/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" async="async"></script><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/number-of-ptsd-cases-among-military-veterans-in-10-years-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-plane-drops-armored-humvees-5000-feet-2016-11">Watch the Air Force drop 8 armored Humvees out of a plane from 5,000 feet</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-hospitals-more-than-health-care-2016-11VA hospitals are about so more than healthcarehttp://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-hospitals-more-than-health-care-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 19:44:00 -0500Sanjay Saint
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5757379d9105844d018c766f-2400/rtx2evc0.jpg" alt="Vietnam war veterans" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Yuri Gripas" data-mce-caption="Vietnam war veterans among other guests listen to U.S. President Barack Obama at the Memorial Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, U.S., May 30, 2016." /></p><p>Veterans Day had its start as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I hostilities.</p>
<p>The holiday serves as an occasion to both honor those who have served in our armed forces and to ask whether we, as a nation, are doing right by them.</p>
<p>In recent years, that question has been directed most urgently at Veterans Affairs hospitals.</p>
<p>Some critics are even calling for the dismantling of the whole huge system of hospitals and outpatient clinics.</p>
<p>President Obama signed a US$16 billion dollar bill to reduce wait times in 2014 to do things like <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/07/politics/obama-va-bill/">hire more medical staff and open more facilities</a>. And <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/06/us/veterans-health-care.html">while progress has been made</a>, much remains to be done.</p>
<p>The system needs to improve access and timeliness of care, reduce often challenging bureaucratic hurdles and pay more attention to what front-line clinicians need to perform their duties well. There is no question that the VA health care system has to change, and it already has begun this process.</p>
<p>Over the past 25 years, I have been a medical student, chief resident, research fellow and practicing physician at four different VA hospitals. My research has led me to spend time in more than a dozen additional VA medical centers.</p>
<p>I know how VA hospitals work, and often have a hard time recognizing them as portrayed in today&rsquo;s political and media environment. My experience is that the VA hospitals I know provide high-quality, compassionate care.</p>
<h2>Treating nine million veterans a year</h2>
<p>I don&rsquo;t think most people have any sense of the size and scope of the VA system. Its 168 medical centers and more than one thousand outpatient clinics and other facilities serve almost nine million veterans a year, making it the <a href="http://www.va.gov/health/aboutVHA.asp">largest integrated health care system in the country</a>.</p>
<p>And many Americans may not know the role VA hospitals play in medical education. Two out of three medical doctors in practice in the U.S. today <a href="http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/includes/viewPDF.cfm?id=2747">received some part of their training at a VA hospital</a>.</p>
<p>The reason dates to the end of World War II. The VA faced a physician shortage, as almost 16 million Americans returned from war, many needing health care.</p>
<p>At the same time, many doctors returned from World War II and needed to complete their residency training. The VA and the nation&rsquo;s medical schools thus became partners. In fact, the <a href="https://www.aamc.org/download/385612/data/07182014.pdf">VA is the largest provider of health care training in the country</a>, which increases the likelihood that trainees will consider working for the VA once they finish.</p>
<h2>Specialized care for veterans</h2>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/52801678ecad04f91b913c38-2400/veterans-4.jpg" alt="veterans" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Jeff Haynes " data-mce-caption="Jack Amwoza (L) and his wife Carlene walk through some of the two thousand and thirteen United States flags that are part of the Aurora Healing Fields, to honor veterans, during Veterans Day weekend in Aurora, Illinois November 10, 2013. Veterans Day is observed on November 11. " />The VA network specializes in the treatment of such war-related problems as post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide prevention. It has, for example, pioneered the <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302836">integration of primary care with mental health</a>.</p>
<p>Many veterans live in rural parts of the U.S., are of advanced age and have chronic medical conditions that make travel challenging. So the VA is a national leader in telemedicine, with notable success in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21322300">mental health care</a>.</p>
<p>The VA&rsquo;s research programs have made major breakthroughs in areas such as cardiac care, prosthetics and infection prevention.</p>
<p>I can vouch for the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa021899">VA&rsquo;s nationwide electronic medical records system</a>, which for many years was at the cutting edge.</p>
<p>A case in point: Several years ago a veteran, in the middle of a cross-country trip, was driving through Michigan when he began feeling sick. Within minutes of his arrival at our VA hospital, we were able to access his records from a VA medical center over a thousand miles away, learn that he had a history of Addison disease, a rare condition, and provide prompt treatment.</p>
<p>I am therefore not surprised that the studies that have compared VA with non-VA care have found that the VA is, overall, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20966778">as good as</a> or <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.168.9.950">better</a> than the private sector. In fact, a recently published <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-016-3775-2">systematic review of 69 studies</a> performed by RAND investigators concluded: &ldquo;&hellip;the available data indicate overall comparable health care quality in VA facilities compared to non-VA facilities with regard to safety and effectiveness.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>The VA offers veterans more than health care</h2>
<p>The most remarkable aspect of VA hospitals, though, is the patient population, the men and women who have sacrificed for their country. They have a common bond. A patient explained it this way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;The VA is different because everyone has done something similar, whether you were in World War II or Korea or Nam, like me. You&rsquo;re not thrown into a pot with other people, which would happen at another kind of hospital.&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/524c66efecad04540a0d823f-2400/veteran-4.jpg" alt="veteran" data-mce-source="Reuters/Ilya Naymushin" /></p>
<p>The people who work at VA hospitals have a special attitude toward their patients. It takes the form of respect and gratitude, of empathy, of a level of caring that is nothing short of love. You can see it in the extra services provided for patients who are often alone in the world, or too far from home to be visited.</p>
<p>Take a familiar scene: a medical student taking a patient for a walk or wheelchair ride on the hospital grounds. It is common for nurses to say &ldquo;our veteran&rdquo; when discussing a patient&rsquo;s care with me.</p>
<p>Volunteers and chaplains rotate through VA hospitals on a regular basis, to a degree unknown in most community hospitals. The social work department is also more active. The patients are not always so patient, but these visitors persevere. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re a good bunch of people,&rdquo; one veteran said of the staff. &ldquo;I know because I&rsquo;m irritable most of the time and they all get along with me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Physicians everywhere are under heavy pressure these days, in part because of the increase in the number of complex patients they care for. Yet I have spent hours observing doctors in VA hospitals around the country as they sit with patients, inquiring about their families and their military service, treating the veterans with respect and without haste.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, I cared for a veteran in his 50&rsquo;s, a house painter, whom we diagnosed with cancer that had metastasized widely. We offered him chemotherapy, which could have given him an extra few months, but he chose hospice. He told me he wanted to go home to be with his wife and play the guitar. One of the songs he wanted to sing was &ldquo;Knocking on Heaven&rsquo;s Door.&rdquo;</p>
<p>I was deeply moved. I liked and admired the man, and I was disturbed that we had been unable to save him. My medical student had the same feelings. Before the patient left, the student told me, &ldquo;He shook my hand, looked me in the eyes, and said, &lsquo;Thanks for being a warrior for me.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s the special kind of patient who shows up at a VA hospital. Every single one of them should have the special kind of care they deserve. And we must ensure that the care is superb on this and every day.</p>
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sanjay-saint-177637">Sanjay Saint</a>, George Dock Professor of Medicine, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-michigan-1290">University of Michigan</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/caring-for-veterans-a-privilege-and-a-duty-67823">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://theconversation.com/javascripts/lib/content_tracker_hook.js" id="theconversation_tracker_hook" data-counter="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/67823/count?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" async="async"></script><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-hospitals-more-than-health-care-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ykk-zipper-label-almost-every-2016-11">Why almost every pair of jeans has a zipper that says ‘YKK’</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-banks-john-eydenberg-on-hiring-veterans-2016-11A senior Wall Street banker explains why he likes hiring vetshttp://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-banks-john-eydenberg-on-hiring-veterans-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 16:14:02 -0500Portia Crowe
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5825f1bb691e88014a8b5778-911/gettyimages-488370322.jpg" alt="Marines military" data-mce-source="Christian Petersen/Getty Images" data-link="http://www.gettyimages.com/license/488370322" /></p><p>Deutsche Bank's corporate and investment bank vice chairman John Eydenberg makes no bones about the fact that he loves hiring veterans.</p>
<p>For one thing, he said, they have the right kind of confidence.</p>
<p>"They take all your confidence away and break you down to your most humble self, and then they help you bring it back," Eydenberg, who was an officer in the US Navy, told Business Insider.</p>
<p>"Veterans tend to be very grounded with a degree of humility that can be very helpful in client businesses."</p>
<p><span>Eydenberg</span> said the kind of person he would prefer to have working for him is a problem-solver who can work through difficult situations, rather than&nbsp;someone who always has the right answer.</p>
<p>Another important point:&nbsp;leadership training is one of the first things new recruits will undergo when they join the military. Leadership,&nbsp;<span>Eydenberg</span> said, is an essential trait in the business world.</p>
<p>"Things that I really have cared about as I've had more and more influence over&nbsp;how we treat our people, develop our people, is choosing leaders, what we expect of our leaders," Eydenberg told Business Insider.</p>
<p>Of course, you can pick up a number of important hard skills in the military too. For example, officer training is fairly mathematically rigorous, Eydenberg said.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"<span>The academic&nbsp;piece is more [about] tools," he said. "The things that are more fundamental are leadership, resilience, teamwork, and confidence."</span></p>
<p>Deutsche Bank is a member of the organization Veterans on Wall Street, along with Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and HSBC.&nbsp;It aims to help recent veterans find career and business opportunities in finance through networking, mentoring, and outreach.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Eydenberg said that&nbsp;this year, 18 interns across Deutsche Bank's&nbsp;investment bank and markets businesses&nbsp;&mdash; or about 10% of the class &mdash; have&nbsp;some military service experience.</p>
<p><span>"We've been really excited about the vets we've brought on," Eydenberg said. "We've found they do a great job in their day job &mdash; but then they commit to culture, make a big impact on culture, too."</span></p>
<p><span>Vets&nbsp;tend to participate in volunteering initiatives and company events, he said. For example, when Deutsche Bank sponsored a float in the pride parade last summer, a number of the firms veterans attended. &nbsp;</span></p>
<p>"A lot of them want to keep serving, they want to have a higher purpose," Eydenberg said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-a-job-on-wall-street-from-the-military-2016-11" >6 tips on how to move from the military to Wall Street</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/deutsche-banks-john-eydenberg-on-hiring-veterans-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-goldman-sachs-banker-trader-steve-mnuchin-donald-trump-treasury-secretary-hollywood-2016-11">Here's everything we know about former Goldman Sachs banker Steve Mnuchin - Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-thank-veterans-on-veterans-day-2016-11Here's how veterans say they want to be honored for their servicehttp://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-thank-veterans-on-veterans-day-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 15:06:46 -0500Caroline Praderio
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/582624fbdd0895e4398b4855-1067/ap_16316616763865.jpg" alt="veterans day parade" data-mce-source="AP/Julio Cortez" data-mce-caption="A Veterans Day parade in New York." /></p><p></p>
<p><strong>The INSIDER Summary:</strong></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>&bull; Today is Veterans Day, when Americans honor men and women who served in the military.</strong><br /><strong>&bull; INSIDER spoke with two vets on how they prefer to be honored by civilians.&nbsp;</strong><br /><strong>&bull; The secret: Treat veterans as whole people, not just former soliders.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<hr />
<p><br />There are lots of worthwhile ways to support America's veterans today: You could attend a parade, show your support on social media, or <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/14/top-10-charities-that-support-veterans.html">donate to organizations that support them</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But one of the&nbsp;most meaningful&nbsp;things you can do &mdash; at least according to veterans Stacy Bare&nbsp;and Courtney Wilson &mdash; is to get to know veterans&nbsp;<em>beyond&nbsp;</em>their military service.</p>
<p>Bare, who served in the Army in Iraq, is the director of <a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/outings/sierra-club-outdoors">Sierra Club Outdoors</a>, where he organizes&nbsp;community-building wilderness expeditions for veterans. Wilson, who served in the Army in Afghanistan, just launched an online database called <a href="http://www.dropzoneforveterans.com/">DropZone</a>, which helps vets navigate the myriad benefits and services available to them. And both stressed the importance of civilians making deeper connections with those who were in the armed forces.</p>
<p><img src="https://static.thisisinsider.com/image/582624fbdd0895e4398b4856-1202/tony goldstein &amp; i on the skin up.jpg" alt="Stacy bare sierra club outdoors" data-mce-source="Rick Meade" /></p>
<p>"Being a veteran&nbsp;or a pro athlete are&nbsp;the only two careers in the world where people are more interested in who you <em>used</em> to be," Bare told INSIDER. "People want to talk about the past, which is cool, but rarely would somebody say, 'Hey man, tell me about what's going on now, what's got you excited, what you want to do next.' Being a veteran is part of who you are, but you can be more than that."</p>
<p>It's true. Many veterans go on to&nbsp;become students, start businesses, get involved in politics, run nonprofits, express themselves through art &mdash; <a href="http://www.thisisinsider.com/veterans-who-have-changed-the-world-2016-11">and a whole bunch more</a>. Getting to know what they're up to after their life in the military is crucial.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Also important: Don't feel weird about getting to know someone who's served even if you haven't.&nbsp;</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/582624fbdd0895e4398b4857-1200/headshot035.jpg" alt="courtney wilson" data-mce-source="Courtesy Courtney Wilson" /></p>
<p>"I think the&nbsp;best way to support veterans is to go up and introduce yourself and get to know them beyond just the 'veteran,'" Wilson told INSIDER. "People put veterans up on a pedestal,&nbsp;and we don't want that. It creates this divide&nbsp;where [civilians]&nbsp;feel bad&nbsp;that they didn't serve, and they're like, 'Oh, I could never understand what you've gone&nbsp;through.' But you've gone through things that <em>I</em>&nbsp;can never understand. That doesn't mean that either one of us is lesser."</p>
<p>The bottom line:&nbsp;Don't ignore the past&nbsp;<span>&mdash;&nbsp;</span>it's obviously important&nbsp;<span>&mdash;&nbsp;</span>but don't hestitate to ask about&nbsp;veterans'&nbsp;lives as they are today. In fact, it's during the <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/12/08/the-difficult-transition-from-military-to-civilian-life/">transition back to civilian life</a> where many&nbsp;vets struggle the hardest.&nbsp;</p>
<p>And, of course: Don't wait to take action only once a year on&nbsp;November 11.</p>
<p>"Support them the next day and the day after that," Wilson said.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-thank-veterans-on-veterans-day-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-vietnam-veteran-gave-one-of-his-kidneys-to-his-war-buddy-2015-11">A Vietnam vet needed a new kidney — so his old war buddy gave him one</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-companies-should-hire-military-veterans-2016-1110 reasons companies should hire military veteranshttp://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-companies-should-hire-military-veterans-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 13:11:13 -0500Military & Defense Team
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/53bda422ecad043446b61b18-1200-924/us-army-best-photos-2012-west-point-soldiers-graduating.jpg" border="0" alt="us army best photos 2012, west point soldiers graduating" /></p><p>Companies take note: hiring a veteran of the U.S. Military comes with a host of benefits.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A number of Quora users responded to the question "<a href="http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-advantages-of-hiring-someone-who-has-been-in-the-US-military">What are the advantages of hiring someone who has been in the U.S. Military</a>?" Of the responders, retired Marine sergeant and current hiring manager Jon Davis outlined ten key reasons employers should hire military veterans.&nbsp;</p>
<p>We have summarized his response below.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>1. Veterans come from a previous culture built for mission accomplishment in mind.&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p>"<span id="__w2_RHUHLd2_toggle_link">Few cultures have been engineered like the one military veterans have been a part of and even fewer ... focuses entirely on mission achievement, cooperation and personal development. The fact is that there is no culture in the world that shapes people in the way the military does," Davis notes.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>2. Veterans have ingrained leadership talents</strong></p>
<p><span>The average age of a Marine, Davis notes, is 19. At 20, most Marines become non-commissioned officers who are placed in leadership positions. As one advances through the military's ranks, the burden of leadership becomes greater and greater.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>3. Veterans take their responsibilities seriously</strong></p>
<p><span>"<span id="__w2_RHUHLd2_toggle_link">Military people get responsibility because when they were very young there were serious consequences to the decisions they made," writes Davis. Veterans have passed through trials that most people haven't, ensuring that they are responsible individuals who can successfully carry out their duties.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><strong>4. Intuition is a skill, and the military teaches it</strong></p>
<p>"<span id="__w2_RHUHLd2_toggle_link">What many people think is that leaders are born. Not in the military. The fact is that many people in military are faced with making life and death decisions in the blink of an eye," Davis writes. Military personnel have been trained to absorb as much information as possible from a variety of sources &mdash; so as to always intuit the best choice available to them.</span></p>
<p><strong>5. Military people will openly tell you when something is wrong</strong></p>
<p><span>Military personnel have a questioning and honest mentality, and will not be afraid of telling bosses when an idea could use a second look.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>6. Military people will get the job done</strong></p>
<p>"M<span id="__w2_RHUHLd2_toggle_link">ilitary people know what it means to have something that needs to be done. They have a sense of urgency and have seen the world through a big picture type mentality," notes Davis.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>7. When given the necessary support, veterans are extremely capable</strong></p>
<p>"<span id="__w2_RHUHLd2_toggle_link">When given a proper framework and adequate training [veterans] can amaze you at how hard they can work and what they can get done," Davis writes.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>8. Veterans are independent&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p><span>Veterans are more likely than other demographic groups to start their own businesses, and possess a resourcefulness can help companies grow quickly from the inside.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><strong>9. Military personnel know the meaning of hard work</strong></p>
<p><span>"<span id="__w2_RHUHLd2_toggle_link">When on deployment we also work every day. Every single day. There are no holidays, no weekends, no birthdays. It is the same thing every day," notes Davis.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p><strong>10. The government pays for veteran education</strong></p>
<p>The government provides veterans with financial assistance for pursuing higher education. By hiring a veteran, companies ensure that they will have employees who can consistently improve while on the job through continuing education initiatives.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/john-keh-operations-manager-caviar-2014-5" >Running a food delivery startup is easy after what this guy did in the Air Force</a></strong></p>
<p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rob-seo-shares-success-lessons-for-slidejoy-2014-5#ixzz370MdtAzy" >5 keys to success that an entrepreneur learned in the Marines</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reasons-companies-should-hire-military-veterans-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-who-have-changed-the-world-2016-11Veterans who have changed the world for the betterhttp://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-who-have-changed-the-world-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 12:12:39 -0500Caroline Praderio
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5825fc16dd0895583a8b480e-2400/aldrin_apollo_11.jpg" alt="neil armstrong buzz aldrin moon walk" data-mce-source="Photographer: Neil Armstrong" data-link="http://www.centromanray.it/Fotografie%20famose/Aldrin_Apollo_11.jpg"></p><p></p>
<p>Veterans aren't just former soldiers: They're artists, scientists, athletes, business people, and public servants who continue to achieve and innovate after they've completed their military service.</p>
<p>Veterans have been driving force behind countless noteworthy achievements — from historic milestones like walking on the moon all the way down to launching small, local nonprofits that lift others out of homelessness.</p>
<p>These are the stories of veterans who served in the armed forces, then used their talents to change the world for the better. Of course, this list is by no means exhaustive — but even a small sampling is proof of the powerful positive influence veterans have in everyday life.</p><h3>Jimmy Carter has almost eradicated a disease from the planet.</h3>
<img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/56741f4f2340f875018b6b4d-400-300/jimmy-carter-has-almost-eradicated-a-disease-from-the-planet.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>In 1982, Carter &mdash; a <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/about/experts/jimmy_carter.html">Navy vet</a> &mdash; created the Carter Center, a nonprofit&nbsp;that aims to advance human rights globally. The center&nbsp;has led the worldwide effort to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/news/features/h/guinea_worm/30-yrs-public-health-leadership.html">eradicate guinea worm disease</a>,&nbsp;a painful condition caused by drinking contaminated water.</p>
<p>Thanks to the center's work, the <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/news/health_publications/guinea_worm/guinea-worm-cases-by-year-from-1989.pdf">number of guinea worm cases has plummeted</a> from 3.5 million in 1986 to just 22&nbsp;in 2015.&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Harriet Tubman spied for the Union during the Civil War.</h3>
<img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5825fc16dd0895583a8b4810-400-300/harriet-tubman-spied-for-the-union-during-the-civil-war.jpg" alt="" />
<p><p>Most people know Tubman as the woman who led slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. But once the Civil War was in full swing, she also worked as a nurse and a spy for the Union Army, <a href="http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/harriet-tubman.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/">according to the Civil War Trust</a>.</p>
<p>In June of 1863, Tubman became&nbsp;the only&nbsp;<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112384583">woman to lead men to battle</a> during the Civil War when she guided 150 troops down the Combahee River, raiding slaveholders' lands and <a href="http://www.harriet-tubman.org/role-in-the-civil-war/">freeing more than 750 slaves in the process</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Sadly, Tubman <a href="http://www.harriet-tubman.org/compensation-for-civil-war-services/">never received a veteran's pension</a>&nbsp;for her services &mdash; until 2003, when the government <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/01/nyregion/in-search-of-back-pay-for-heroine-of-civil-war.html">sent a belated sum of $11,750</a> to the Harriet Tubman Home&nbsp;in Auburn, New York.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p></p>
<br/><br/><h3>Stacy Bare helps veterans heal in the great outdoors.</h3>
<img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5825fc16dd0895583a8b4811-400-300/stacy-bare-helps-veterans-heal-in-the-great-outdoors.jpg" alt="" />
<p> <p>When he returned from Iraq in&nbsp;in 2006, Bare had trouble transitioning back to civilian life. He self-medicated with drugs and alcohol and even contemplated suicide.&nbsp;But a friend invited him to go&nbsp;rock climbing by chance&nbsp;one day &mdash; and Bare found that time spent outdoors was enormously healing.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Now, he inspires a&nbsp;love of nature in others as the director of Sierra Club Outdoors. Part of his job includes organizing nature&nbsp;<a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/outings/military">expeditions for veterans</a>. The trips help foster mental and physical health while building community.</p>
<p>"I think&nbsp;everybody benefits from time outside," Bare told INSIDER. "You get outside and you challenge yourself and you see beautiful places &mdash; you really realize what you fought for as a country.&nbsp;We use a lot of public lands and that's where justice and liberty and all these high ideals kind of manifest themselves physically. It's a pretty beautiful&nbsp;thing."</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p> </p>
<br/><br/><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/veterans-who-have-changed-the-world-2016-11#/#grace-hopper-was-a-computer-science-pioneer-4">See the rest of the story at Business Insider</a> http://www.businessinsider.com/help-vets-veterans-day-2016-115 ways to do more for veterans than just say thank you on Veterans Dayhttp://www.businessinsider.com/help-vets-veterans-day-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 11:11:36 -0500Russell Midori
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5825eccb691e881b008b63b3-840/15467179216_6601bd4e6d_b-840x420.jpg" alt="veterans day veterans" data-mce-source="US Army/Sgt. Cody Quinn" data-mce-caption="Joint Base Lewis-McChord Soldiers honor Vietnam Veterans during a &ldquo;Salute and Welcome Home&rdquo; ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, held Oct. 9, 2014. U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Cody Quinn" /></p><p>This Veterans Day can go beyond the parades and troop-supporting bumper stickers and thank-you handshakes. It can be the day you decide to actually do something to honor those who have served in a meaningful and lasting way.</p>
<p>There are plenty of ways you can take action to show your support for veterans, from making minor changes to your shopping habits, to committing time and effort to a worthy cause. Follow this handy guide and the next time you thank a veteran for their service, maybe they&rsquo;ll thank you back.</p>
<h3>Don&rsquo;t just buy American, buy veteran.</h3>
<p>You already buy stuff. Now you can buy stuff and put money right into a hardworking veteran&rsquo;s pocket. Visit the online<a href="http://www.veteranownedbusiness.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> veteran-owned business directory</a> and find large and small businesses sorted by area or by category.</p>
<p>Make it a habit to check here before purchasing goods or services, and you&rsquo;ll become a valued customer to a verified veteran entrepreneur. Also, veteran-owned businesses are more likely to employ veterans, so your purchase could be helping several vets at once.</p>
<h3>Get involved with the Veterans History Project.</h3>
<p>The Veterans History Project is a time capsule of first-hand military stories. It allows each participant to tell his or her story on audio or video mediums to be collected and preserved by the Library of Congress &ldquo;so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.&rdquo;</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/564a0fab1123143c008b56a3-960/mil8.jpg" alt="veterans coast guard" data-mce-source="USCG" /></p>
<p>You can volunteer to interview veterans and record their personal recollections. Each oral history you submit to the Library of Congress will become part of the collective portrait of historical conflicts. You&rsquo;ll be giving vets a chance to tell their stories to the world. If you&rsquo;re an educator, you can also use the resources the VA provides to get a whole group of students to participate.</p>
<p>People view and listen to these histories both at the Library of Congress and through the<a href="http://www.loc.gov/vets" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> online collection</a>.</p>
<h3>Volunteer at a VA hospital.</h3>
<p>You probably know VA hospitals need a lot of help. Don&rsquo;t just complain about it, strap on a blue vest and join the family of Red Cross volunteers who provide support to wounded warriors. You&rsquo;ll directly interact with and assist people who served, many of whom have bled for your freedom. There is a personal satisfaction and sense of pride that comes from helping a hero, but if that&rsquo;s not enough for you, there are also fun activities to do with recovering vets, <a href="https://www.dav.org/help-dav/volunteer/jesse-brown-scholarship/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">scholarship opportunities</a> for volunteers, and it looks great on a resume.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5757376991058428008c767c-2400/rtx2evc0.jpg" alt="Vietnam war veterans" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Yuri Gripas" data-mce-caption="Vietnam war veterans among other guests listen to U.S. President Barack Obama at the Memorial Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, U.S., May 30, 2016." /></p>
<p>Go online to find your local<a href="http://www.redcross.org/find-your-local-chapter" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Red Cross chapter by zipcode</a>, call them up, and tell them you&rsquo;re ready to help.</p>
<h3>Sign up for Amazon Smile.</h3>
<p>Amazon will donate to a veterans&rsquo; charity of your choosing if you shop through<a href="http://smile.amazon.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Amazon Smile</a>. It doesn&rsquo;t even cost you anything. Amazon will just donate a percentage of the purchase price for whatever you&rsquo;re buying.</p>
<h3>Offer your pro-bono services to the veteran community.</h3>
<p>You&rsquo;re probably good at something, so do that thing for veterans. There are organizations that help veterans with all sorts of services. Seek out the ones that speak to your skill set or interests and offer your expertise. A pretty good entry point for the veteran community is<a href="http://www.codeofsupport.org/99-ways-to-get-involved" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Code of Support</a>, which lists a bunch of service organizations sorted by category.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-started-by-military-veterans-2016-11" >9 wildly successful companies you had no idea were started by military veterans</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/help-vets-veterans-day-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-plane-drops-armored-humvees-5000-feet-2016-11">Watch the Air Force drop 8 armored Humvees out of a plane from 5,000 feet</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/drexel-hamilton-hires-service-disabled-vets-2016-11A Wall Street firm is giving service-disabled vets an opportunityhttp://www.businessinsider.com/drexel-hamilton-hires-service-disabled-vets-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 09:18:54 -0500Tina Wadhwa
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58252f5546e27a18048b615e-454/jerry.jpg" alt="Jerry" data-mce-source="Drexel Hamilton" /></p><p>Jerry Majetich completed four tours in Iraq.</p>
<p>It was on his last mission, when he was working for the psychological operations division in the US Marine Corps, that his vehicle ran over a roadside bomb.</p>
<p>His body was on fire, and when he got out of the vehicle he was shot four times. One-hundred percent of his face and 37% of the surface area of his body was burned, he lost both ears, his nose, and some fingers, and his abdomen and intestines were ruptured, among other injuries.</p>
<p>He spent 22 months in a hospital and has endured 74 operations and counting.</p>
<p>When he finally retired from service in 2007, he said in an interview with Business Insider, his wife left him, and he became a single father of three children and $1.3 million in debt.</p>
<p>He didn't think he would have trouble finding work. He had received a degree in finance with a 3.98 grade-point average and had a decorated military record. Getting interviews proved to be difficult, however, and when he was invited in, he said, "the interview was over even before it started."</p>
<p>"I was really motivated, but nobody would take me seriously because of my injuries," he said. "To feel forgotten was very painful."</p>
<p>Matt Murawski, a soft-spoken veteran from Georgia, had a lot of responsibility on active duty. He was in charge of 120 soldiers, 20 artillerymen, 15 US contractors, and 500 Afghan soldiers whom he was mentoring to take over security in the area. He was also in charge of mentoring the mayor, judge, and police force of a small town in the mountains of Afghanistan.</p>
<p>US Army vet Scott Smiley is blind in both eyes from an explosion in Mosul, Iraq. He has a master's degree from Duke University and completed an Ironman long-distance triathlon in Hawaii against all odds. He too, wasn't able to find work after leaving the Army, saying "nobody would hire him."</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/545d3c3f69bedd8834648df8-2400/iraq-war-3.jpg" alt="Iraq War" data-mce-source="Lucas Jackson/Reuters" data-mce-caption="oldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division rest while waiting to pack their weapons for shipment back to the United States at Camp Virginia, Kuwait on December 19, 2011." />Drexel Hamilton wants to change that.</p>
<h2>A new start</h2>
<p>The broker-dealer Drexel Hamilton was founded by a disabled veteran named Lawrence Doll in 2007. Doll served in the Vietnam War in 1968 and 1969 and was seriously wounded while he was there. "It was a difficult time," he said in an interview with Business Insider, "because the country was mostly against the war in Vietnam. But people helped me &mdash; and I never forgot that."</p>
<p>He, in turn, wanted to help veterans who were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, especially the injured ones, as he knew they had a difficult time finding work.</p>
<p>Doll was an aspiring football player and had football scholarships when the Vietnam War interrupted his dream. "That was my love," he said. "But here I am. I think God had a different idea for me. Maybe this is where I'm supposed to be."</p>
<p>The firm's vision lies in "pairing a vet with a vet," wherein an experienced Wall Street industry professional pairs with a military veteran on the team. It says that of 108 employees, about 40% are veterans and just over half of those are veterans disabled in service.</p>
<p>Spending time with Doll, the firm's chairman and founder; Billy Mingione, its head of equities; and James Cahill, its president, it's clear that for many the firm is like a family. Doll and Cahill refer to the employees as their kids. "They're like my children," Doll said. Mingione has hosted vets for Thanksgiving and other holidays. And Doll walked Majetich's new fianc&eacute;e down the aisle at their wedding.</p>
<p>Cahill was in retirement when he met Doll and learned of the company's mission. Now 79, Cahill is a 30-year Wall Street veteran who lost his son in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.</p>
<p><img class="float_left float_right" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/582531da691e882a4e8b55ef-492/james cahill.jpg" alt="James Cahill" data-mce-source="drexel hamilton" />He served as managing director of Salomon Brothers (acquired by Citi), managing director at Lehman Brothers, and head of fixed-income operations at Keefe Bruyette &amp; Woods.</p>
<p>Hailing from a family of blue-collar workers, Cahill was the first in his family to attend college and took night classes at Fordham University for six years to complete his degree.</p>
<p>"That's what I tell the guys who are trying to come up the hard way," he said. "You can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. Go at it and show people you can do it."</p>
<h2>Go at it</h2>
<p>Mingione is a fellow industry vet. With 19 years of experience on Wall Street, he spent over a decade at Fidelity and ran corporate access at Collins Stewart.</p>
<p>The firm operates in capital markets, sales and trading, and investment banking. The firm's equity-research practice, which began in 2011, focuses on aerospace and defense, telecommunications, media and technology, financial services, energy, and technical analysis.</p>
<p>Drexel Hamilton is particularly proud of its expertise in aerospace and defense, of which the team says veterans have firsthand experience.</p>
<p>Who better to understand and analyze the aerospace and defense industry than a former F-18 fighter pilot?</p>
<p>"We don't walk in the door saying, 'We're veterans, so you should do business with us,'" Mingione said. "We walk in the door saying, 'Hey, we've got a great research product and we have great talent.' And they're much more willing to consume it from us because they like us and want to do business with us."</p>
<p>"What we've found is that the vets don't want charity &mdash; they don't want to beg," Cahill said. "These are heroes. And we put them back with their family and give them the chance to live the American dream the way I was able to do it."</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/582530d0691e88014a8b561e-2400/flags.jpg" alt="flags" data-mce-source="Drexel Hamilton" />Drexel's office is different from other offices on Wall Street. Flags hang in the reception, and a large painting of a World War II-era fighter plane adorns the wall. Employees hang framed pictures of their unit patches, worn on their uniforms while they served, on the walls next to their desks, and a giant map of Iraq hangs on the trading floor, serving as a reminder of colleagues who have served.</p>
<p>Drexel Hamilton is a fixture at industry conferences and partners with other veteran initiatives on the Street, including Wall Street Warfighters. The firm hires veterans on a rotational program, and new veteran employees rotate among the various businesses, each paired with a Wall Street veteran, and determine which is the best fit. For vets who don't get recruited, the firm aims to be a resource to the rest of the Street and use its contacts at other institutions' veteran initiatives to place other hires.</p>
<p>Ben Downing, a capital-markets associate at Drexel Hamilton, served in Iraq with the Army in 2008 and 2009. Tall and broad-shouldered, he was quick to explain the skills that military veterans possess that translate over to financial services.</p>
<p>Leadership, teamwork, initiative. The same skills, he said, as what is taught in an MBA class or any executive leadership training class. "But those are things we learn in basic training," he said. "Those are the building blocks in the military that we start off with."</p>
<h2>Leadership, teamwork, initiative</h2>
<p>Downing also points to the ability of veterans to sort through a huge amount of data quickly and make it actionable. "It's exactly what happens on Wall Street," he said. "You need that tactical and strategical outlook, and we're used to being agile thinkers."</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/58253145691e882c4e8b5613-924/jerry2 2.jpg" alt="Jerry2 2" data-mce-source="Drexel Hamilton" />He talks about the adaptability of veterans to uncomfortable situations and locations. For example, he recently went on a last-minute trip to Rwanda for a capital-markets meeting. "Plus," Murawski joked, "We already have all of our vaccinations."</p>
<p>Majetich sees a lot of similarities between his role in psychological operations with the Marines and his current role in business development at Drexel Hamilton.</p>
<p>In the Marines, he says, he was tasked with "winning the hearts and minds" of the local population. He often had to sit down with villagers and have conversations. Over time he became friends with locals, and they eventually started to provide him with relevant information. It was intelligence gathering, not too dissimilar from corporate access at Drexel Hamilton. But here, he jokes, there's no fear of getting killed.</p>
<p>That's not to say it's an easy transition. There are the challenges of adapting to a new life after war, especially after sustaining potentially devastating injuries &mdash; mentally, emotionally, and physically. It's also a matter of culture.</p>
<p>"We're not good self-promoters," Downing said. In the military, you are rated by how good your soldiers are rather then by how good you are. But in the corporate world, it's a complete 180 in the way you're supposed to promote yourself.</p>
<p>Initially, Drexel Hamilton recruited by visiting hospitals and talking to the "kids," Doll said. "Sometimes they hold a degree of bitterness. But if you're a gladiator, you take a chance. You need to be able to move past it."</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5825d1d5691e88014a8b5695-911/266236-1024x683.jpg" alt="MK11 sniper" data-mce-source="US Marine Corps" data-mce-caption="A US Marine Corps scout sniper fires his MK-11 sniper rifle in the first stage of a three-day platoon competition in Djibouti." />Other programs dedicated to helping military veterans include Wall Street Warfighters and VOWS, or Veterans on Wall Street.</p>
<h2>More help needed</h2>
<p>The Philadelphia-based Wall Street Warfighters is a six-month course that includes classwork, fieldwork, exam preparation, mentorship, and internships for veterans. The foundation covers all training, travel, business clothing, housing, and food.</p>
<p>VOWS is similarly committed to providing support and training for veterans as well as recruitment initiatives; its partners include Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC.</p>
<p>Drexel Hamilton is doing its part to help veterans, but it's clear that much still needs to be done. According to the Census Bureau, 21.3 million veterans are living in the US and Puerto Rico, making up 9% of the civilian population.</p>
<p>Banks and nonbanks alike are stepping up with initiatives to hire veterans. In 2011, the White House launched a nationwide program to support service members, veterans, and their families. Through the initiative, more than 50 companies <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/05/12/joining-forces-committing-employ-our-nations-service-members">have pledged</a> to hire more than 110,000 veterans and military spouses combined over the next five years.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drexel-hamilton-hires-service-disabled-vets-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-entrepreneurs-government-lacking-2016-11">Richard Branson: Entrepreneurs need to fill the gap where government is lacking</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-a-job-on-wall-street-from-the-military-2016-116 tips on how to move from the military to Wall Streethttp://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-a-job-on-wall-street-from-the-military-2016-11
Fri, 11 Nov 2016 09:13:45 -0500Morgan Stanley
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5825d068691e888d008b6287-2314/rtx11yb0.jpg" alt="credit suisse shadow bankers" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann " data-mce-caption="People walk through the entrance of the headquarters of Swiss bank Credit Suisse at the Paradeplatz square in Zurich July 25, 2013." />Here&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.morganstanley.com/articles/veterans-guide-to-launching-a-career">some insight and advice from veterans at Morgan Stanley</a> on how to prepare for a move from a military career into a corporate one.</span></p>
<p><span>&ldquo;The military is very good around execution,&rdquo; says Jeff McMillan, veteran and Managing Director in the Data &amp; Analytics division of Morgan Stanley's Wealth Management business. </span></p>
<p><span>&ldquo;If you want to be a General, there is a document that tells you all the things you need to do, all the schools you need to attend, the ratings you need to receive, the jobs you need to accomplish. It lays out the exact path to success. I&rsquo;m still waiting for someone to hand that book to me for the civilian world.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span>There may be no manual, but here are some insights and advice from veterans at Morgan Stanley, who found it's a lot easier than it might initially feel to segue from a military career into a corporate one:</span></p>
<h2>Know Your Skills</h2>
<p><span>Veterans&nbsp;usually have the kind of skills that corporate recruiters look for, like:<br /> </span></p>
<ul>
<li><span></span><span><strong>Decision-Making:</strong>&nbsp;&ldquo;There are a lot of veterans who underestimate the value of their experience,&rdquo; says Laura King, Vice President in Risk Management. &ldquo;The experience of handling difficult, ambiguous situations where you have to make a decision at the spur of the moment.&rdquo;<br /> </span></li>
<li><span></span><span><strong>Leadership</strong>: &ldquo;There is no institution in the world that I know of that teaches you leadership like the military,&rdquo; says McMillan. &ldquo;I was 23 years old and stationed in Korea as a scout platoon leader and had 128 people deployed to me when we went to the field. You very rarely get that kind of experience in the civilian world at that age.&rdquo;<br /> </span></li>
<li><span></span><span><strong>Determination</strong>: &ldquo;Imagine your platoon having no sleep for three days, it hasn't stopped raining for a week, and you get a call saying you have to move immediately to a destination 50 miles away.&rdquo; adds McMillan. &ldquo;That's a unique experience that prepares you for any kind of challenge you could face in financial services.&rdquo;</span></li>
<li><span><strong>Organizational Skills:</strong>&nbsp;&ldquo;So many jobs in the military revolve around logistics and require meticulous attention to detail and deadlines,&rdquo; says Brian Hall, a Commodities Product Controller in the Finance Division. &ldquo;There are tons of jobs in financial services that are a perfect fit for veterans as a result&mdash;jobs in divisions like Operations, Compliance, Risk Management and Technology.&rdquo;</span></li>
<li><span><strong>Focus and Discipline:</strong>&nbsp;&ldquo;Vets are very good at focusing on the mission and they have a very strong set of principles that form the basis of how they conduct themselves,&rdquo; says Joe Purcell, veteran and Managing Director in Investment Banking. &ldquo;They also have a high degree of discipline and attention to detail learned on active duty, and these kinds of attributes are highly transferable to Morgan Stanley.&rdquo;</span></li>
</ul>
<h2>Update Your Resume</h2>
<p><span>Once you know your skills, tailor your resume accordingly, by clarifying how your military experience is transferable to a financial services role. &ldquo;We'll see a line item in a military resume that says &ldquo;S4, NCO Brigade Officer in charge of synchronization, logistics and personnel,&rdquo; says one human resources recruiter. In the corporate world that would translate to &ldquo;Extensive leadership experience project managing transportation for up to 1500 people, including mapping travel routes and scheduling times for departure using a matrix structure.&rdquo;</span></p>
<h2>Use Your Military Network</h2>
<p><span>There are veterans everywhere willing to help, including veterans in Morgan Stanley's Veterans Employment Networking Group. Tap into these networks in different parts of the finance industry, and "literally have 25 conversations with people in different companies in different jobs, and I'm not exaggerating,&rdquo; says McMillan. &ldquo;You need to ask these people what they do, what they like about it and what skills they learned in the military that help them in their civilian careers.&rdquo; There are also multiple veterans networking groups online, specific to veterans.</span></p>
<h2>Determine the Right Job Fit</h2>
<p><span>&ldquo;There are plenty of&nbsp;<a href="http://aemauth-ms.webfarm.ms.com/auth/content/msdotcom/en/articles/wall-st-recruits-non-finance-degrees/"><span>jobs in financial services firms</span></a>&nbsp; that are &nbsp;similar jobs in the military, and then there are those that have a much less structured environment and require a lot more nuance than what you would be used to if you've just come out of the service,&rdquo; says King. &ldquo;I started out in Operations as a project manager, for instance, and that's a perfect first job to have as a veteran. They have a chain of command that very much parallels that of the military. It's very structured and your job brief is very specific.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span>&ldquo;Now I work in Risk Management, where the management structure is very flat, it's more collaborative and it's required an adjustment on my part, but it's been a great experience and I was ready for a new challenge.&rdquo;&nbsp;</span></p>
<h2>Learn the Language and the Basic Tools</h2>
<p><span>It always helps to know the most common terms and acronyms used in the finance industry. Start with our&nbsp;<a href="http://www.morganstanley.com/people-opportunities/students-graduates/resources/jargon-buster/"><span>jargon buster</span></a>. Read the finance news and look up words or terms you are unfamiliar with. Follow the banking industry and the issues affecting it. Try to familiarize yourself with the day-to-day applications used in corporations - Word, PowerPoint and Excel. There are plenty of resources online to get you up to speed.&nbsp;</span></p>
<h2>Get Smart About Companies and Culture</h2>
<p><span>Every financial services firm is different. Learn about each one by reading company websites and following news about a firm&rsquo;s position in the industry. Knowing a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.morganstanley.com/people-opportunities/students-graduates/culture/"><span>company's culture</span></a>&nbsp;will help determine if it's the right place for you. How much do they support their employees? Do you get a chance to move around if you find you want a bigger challenge or don't find your first position a good fit? How much emphasis does the firm put on&nbsp;<a href="http://aemauth-ms.webfarm.ms.com/auth/content/msdotcom/en/about-us/giving-back/morgan-stanley-university-photo-contest-2016.html"><span>giving back</span></a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://aemauth-ms.webfarm.ms.com/auth/content/msdotcom/en/about-us/diversity.html"><span>diversity and inclusion</span></a>? How&nbsp;<a href="http://aemauth-ms.webfarm.ms.com/auth/content/msdotcom/en/articles/work-at-morgan-stanley/"><span>collegial</span></a>&nbsp;is everyone, and is it a place where people sincerely put the success of the team ahead of their own personal gain?</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-vs-europe-for-bankers-2016-11" >There's only one place in the world to be an investment banker</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-a-job-on-wall-street-from-the-military-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/preauricular-sinus-small-hole-above-ear-2016-11">Here's why some people have a tiny hole above their ears</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/why-veterans-support-donald-trump-2016-11This is why veterans are backing Donald Trump despite his many military gaffeshttp://www.businessinsider.com/why-veterans-support-donald-trump-2016-11
Fri, 04 Nov 2016 21:44:00 -0400Ciro Scotti
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/581cf401691e88d0118b4ccd-711/trump-defends-remarks-on-veterans-and-mental-health.jpg" alt="People watch as U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference at a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri " data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="People watch as Donald Trump speaks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference at a campaign event in Charlotte" /></p><p>Donald Trump has trashed-talked Senator John McCain, who as a POW was tortured during the Vietnam War.</p>
<p>He has skipped a GOP primary debate before the Iowa caucuses, instead holding a fund-raising event for vets. Then the money he raised <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-said-he-raised-6-million-for-vets-now-his-campaign-says-it-was-less/2016/05/20/871127a8-1d1f-11e6-b6e0-c53b7ef63b45_story.html">had to be pried out of his small hands</a>.</p>
<p>He has said he knows more about ISIS than the generals.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/11/01/Trump-Pulling-Ahead-Here-s-What-Polls-Are-Really-Saying"></a>He has called the American military &ldquo;a disaster.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/08/03/its-legal-for-donald-trump-to-accept-a-purple-heart-how-he-handled-it-is-up-for-debate/?tid=a_inl">accepted a Purple Heart</a> awarded to one of his supporters, saying he always wanted one &ndash; as if a medal for getting wounded in battle were the Flexible Flyer he didn&rsquo;t get for Christmas in 1950.</p>
<p>He has been at war with the Muslim parents of Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 as he cautioned his men to stand back while he moved to examine a suspicious vehicle. It was a car bomb.</p>
<p>He has said he learned all about being a soldier <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/donald-trumps-war-with-the-us-military/2016/09/09/a6701dae-7678-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html?utm_term=.1a89304b94c4">when he was sent to a military-themed boarding school</a>because he was a badly behaved boy.</p>
<p>And yet, as <em>The New York Times</em> reports , the man of the people who called in sick to the Vietnam draft while getting five deferments counts military veterans &mdash; many of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan &mdash; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/us/politics/donald-trump-veterans.html?_r=0">as his most loyal supporters</a>.</p>
<p>Why would an overweight Twitter jockey who couldn&rsquo;t low-crawl on his belly under barbed wire if he wanted to or pilot anything more complicated than a Cadillac Escalade appeal to America&rsquo;s former fighting men and women?</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s simple: They resent having been sent cavalierly to fight again and again in senseless conflicts that don&rsquo;t leave them proud, just exhausted and broken.</p>
<p>Politicians like to puff out their chests, pledge allegiance and wrap themselves in the Stars and Stripes when veterans are mentioned, but it usually seems like a drill you learn at snag-a-vote school &mdash; along with phony smiling, hand pumping and talking out of both sides of your mouth.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5757379d9105844d018c766f-2400/rtx2evc0.jpg" alt="Vietnam war veterans" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Yuri Gripas" data-mce-caption="Vietnam war veterans among other guests listen to U.S. President Barack Obama at the Memorial Day observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, U.S., May 30, 2016." /></p>
<p>But if the personally bellicose Trump can be taken seriously about anything, it&rsquo;s that he doesn&rsquo;t want to be a war president, that he doesn&rsquo;t want America to be the world&rsquo;s sentry, that he doesn&rsquo;t want to send troops into harm&rsquo;s way with abandon.</p>
<p>In this election year, no candidate other than Bernie Sanders has talked more forcefully about not getting involved in foreign adventures than Trump. And in some ways, he has gone further, suggesting &mdash; sometimes ham-handedly or even frighteningly -- that countries defend themselves, or at least pay for their own defense.</p>
<p>The media has played &ldquo;gotcha!&rdquo; with him over his claim that he never supported the invasion of Iraq, trotting out a half-hearted endorsement of the war in a passing moment during an interview with Howard Stern in 2002.</p>
<p>But he wasn&rsquo;t a senator who got a briefing and voted against the war, like Sanders -- or a senator who got a briefing and authorized the war, like Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>If middle and upper-class Americans are surprised that those who defend them are turning to Trump, that&rsquo;s understandable: The all-volunteer enlisted men and women have become an easily ignored underclass with whom many people never have much contact.</p>
<p>The <em>Times</em> story Thursday examining why so many veterans are backing Trump pointed out that less than 1 percent of Americans serve their country these days.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/581cf447691e8821008b4ed9-711/trump-says-to-visit-uk-to-open-golf-resort-on-june-24.jpg" alt="U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the media regarding donations to veterans foundations at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 31, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the media regarding donations to veterans foundations at Trump Tower in Manhattan" /></p>
<p>For all its faults, a conscripted military was more representative of the nation because it included soldiers, sailors and Marines from all backgrounds, ethnicities and economic circumstances. Sure, the wealthier were always better able to come up with ways to avoid the draft, but it didn&rsquo;t always work.</p>
<p>Now instead of being an army of your sons and daughters or the children of your relatives, friends and co-workers, the military is made up of hired guns who don&rsquo;t have the same connection to the population at large. They are our national bodyguards. We trust them to protect us. We honor their service. But at the end of the day, the sorry truth is we treat them as expendable.</p>
<p>It is fair to ask if George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would have been as quick to start the Iraq War and commit troops to a dangerous mission far from home if those soldiers were draftees.</p>
<p>With an all-volunteer military, the danger of a political blowback is significantly lower, and so the temptation to play cowboy with other people&rsquo;s lives is much higher.</p>
<p>In Clinton, many of those who have been grunts on the ground no doubt see yet another politician who could have an itchy trigger finger and who already made one wrong decision about going to war.</p>
<p>In Trump, if they take him at his very dodgy word, they see an outsider who says he wants to strengthen the military enormously but keep American troops out of conflicts that don&rsquo;t threaten national security. He has also promised to upgrade the care that former soldiers are getting from a still-troubled Veterans Administration.</p>
<p>Trump has said to another group of Americans: &ldquo;What the hell have you got to lose?&rdquo;</p>
<p>Surely a lot of veterans backing him have asked that question of themselves.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-veterans-support-donald-trump-2016-11#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/income-state-top-one-percent-salary-map-2016-11">Here's how much you need to make to be in the top 1% of every state</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-knew-calguard-bonuses-2016-10Officials say Congress knew 2 years ago that soldiers were mistakenly paid huge bonuses they would have to pay back laterhttp://www.businessinsider.com/congress-knew-calguard-bonuses-2016-10
Tue, 25 Oct 2016 14:11:58 -0400Paul Szoldra
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/580f9dfcb28a6436008b4b4a-705/screen-shot-2016-03-18-at-10.47.25-am.png" alt="US army" data-mce-source="Flickr/The U.S. Army" data-mce-caption="USArmy paratroopers assigned to 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, finish boarding an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft loaded with a heavy-drop-rigged Humvee for a night jump onto Malemute Drop Zone, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska." data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/15380143543/in/dateposted/" /></p><p>Congress knew the Pentagon had mistakenly paid&nbsp;out huge cash bonuses to National Guard soldiers that they would later be forced to pay back at least two years ago, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-bonus-guard-20161024-snap-story.html">according to a senior</a> National Guard official.</p>
<p>In an email sent to California's state congressional delegation on Monday, California's chief of federal policy and liaison Andreas Mueller warned that the crisis &mdash; which currently affects nearly 10,000 soldiers who are being forced to pay back bonuses of tens of thousands of dollars &mdash; could affect many more states.</p>
<p>Mueller also said the Guard had informed Congress of the problem two years ago, though&nbsp;it did nothing to fix it, according <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-bonus-guard-20161024-snap-story.html">to the&nbsp;Los Angeles Times</a>, which broke the story on Sunday.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important to note that we&rsquo;ve kind of led the way in trying to solve this,&rdquo;&nbsp;Maj. Gen. Matthew Beavers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/10/25/pentagon-chief-promises-to-resolve-cases-for-national-guard-soldiers-ordered-to-repay-bonuses/">told</a> The Washington Post.</p>
<p>The California Guard even sent draft legislation to each California congressional office in 2014, but it went nowhere at the time due to the cost. Unfortunately, that cost is now being passed on to the soldiers who accepted the mistaken bonus payments and are struggling to repay debts of $15,000 or more.</p>
<p>"When I first got the letter, I was angered and then felt betrayed," Todd Percival, a former California Guard member, <a href="http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2016/10/25/national-guard-members-feel-betrayed-over-pentagon-repayment-demands/">told</a> CBS. "I opened the letter and it said I owe them $20,000 and I have 30 days to pay them back."</p>
<p>They currently have little recourse, since protesting or failing to pay will result in interest and penalty charges, along with calls from debt collectors. The DoD has a website where soldiers <a href="http://www.dod.mil/dodgc/doha/">can submit an appeal here.</a></p>
<p>&ldquo;It is unthinkable that these brave Americans who stepped forward when others did not after the 9/11 attacks are being left high and dry by their leadership,&rdquo; Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said in a statement.</p>
<p>Many in Congress&nbsp;and other political leaders&nbsp;echoed that sentiment in statements this week, including Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), and presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) called the payback <a href="https://hunter.house.gov/press-release/hunter-dod-ca-guard-bonuses-fix-boneheaded-decision">demands</a> "boneheaded."</p>
<p>Still, it's not yet clear whether those critical of the Pentagon knew ahead of time that this would eventually happen. According to Mueller's letter, every congressional office in California received legislation that would have fixed it.</p>
<p>Business Insider left messages with&nbsp;a number of members, including Rep. Duncan Hunter&nbsp;(R), Rep. Darrell Issa (R), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D), and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R). Only Hunter's office responded.</p>
<p>"We all have the benefit of hindsight here," said Joe Kasper, Hunter's Chief of Staff. But "the size and scope of this was never conveyed." Kaspar also pointed out that, according to current law, the Secretary of Defense has the power to immediately halt recoupment of bonuses.</p>
<p><em>This post was updated on Oct. 25, 2016 at 12:49 p.m. PDT.</em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-cash-bonus-california-guard-2016-10" >The Pentagon is demanding soldiers pay back huge cash bonuses that were given out by mistake</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-knew-calguard-bonuses-2016-10#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-its-like-fly-quirky-mv-22-osprey-part-plane-part-helicopter-2016-11">Part plane, part helicopter — here's what it's like to fly in the military's MV-22 Osprey</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/reid-hoffman-millions-to-vets-donald-trump-tax-returns-2016-9LinkedIn's founder promised to give up to $5 million to veterans if Donald Trump releases his tax returnshttp://www.businessinsider.com/reid-hoffman-millions-to-vets-donald-trump-tax-returns-2016-9
Mon, 12 Sep 2016 16:28:11 -0400Biz Carson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57d1b90209d29327008b6bc3-2400/ap_16252680591114.jpg" alt="Donald Trump" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Evan Vucci" data-mce-caption="Donald Trump." /></p><p>LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman is now throwing his weight behind the mounting pressure on Republican candidate Donald Trump to release his tax returns.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In a Medium post&nbsp;on Monday,&nbsp;Hoffman said he would give up to $5 million of his money to veterans if Trump releases his returns before the last presidential debate, slated for October.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Specifically, Hoffman is backing a campaign led by Marine Corps veteran Peter Kiernan on Crowdpac to incentivize Trump to release his returns.</p>
<p>Hoffman is pledging to match $5 to every $1 donated to the campaign, up to a $5 million maximum. In other words, if the campaign raises $200,000, Hoffman will donate $1 million, and so on, up to the campaign's $1 million goal. &nbsp;The money raised between Hoffman and the campaign&nbsp;will be distributed to different veterans charities.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Trump's taxes have been an ongoing topic for much of the year. It is customary for US presidential candidates to show the public their personal tax returns, but Trump has refused to do so, citing an ongoing IRS audit. His refusal has prompted <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/s?q=donald+trump+tax+returns&amp;sort=relevance&amp;author=&amp;contributed=1&amp;vertical=politics">all kinds of speculation</a> about his personal finances.</p>
<p>The way Hoffman&nbsp;sees it, Trump has no reason to keep delaying releasing the returns except for seeing them&nbsp;"as a bargaining chip to utilize" when his campaign needs it, Hoffman writes.</p>
<p>As a result, Hoffman is backing a campaign that gives Trump incentives to release his returns, but doesn't reward him for the act.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"Instead, men and women to whom all Americans owe a great debt of gratitude will benefit from any positive action he takes," Hoffman said.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reid-hoffman-backing-a-campaign-to-recall-judge-in-brock-turners-case-2016-9" >LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is backing a campaign to recall the judge in Brock Turner's case</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reid-hoffman-millions-to-vets-donald-trump-tax-returns-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-accused-flip-flopping-nbc-news-matt-lauer-2016-9">Donald Trump is under fire for his comments about the Iraq War</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-pence-calls-for-the-federal-government-to-repay-itt-tech-veterans-2016-9Mike Pence is calling for the federal government to repay veterans who spent millions to attend ITT Techhttp://www.businessinsider.com/mike-pence-calls-for-the-federal-government-to-repay-itt-tech-veterans-2016-9
Mon, 12 Sep 2016 14:16:43 -0400Abby Jackson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/57d70667077dcc39128b5112-2400/ap_16226502109386.jpg" alt="In this Aug. 8, 2016, photo, Republican vice presidential candidate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence speaks during a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It's been one potentially disastrous misstep after another for Donald Trump this week but you wouldn't know it watching Pence. Trump's running mate is the campaign's happy warrior, avoiding addressing each new eyebrow raising comment the businessman makes while delighting in telling cheering audiences that Trump won't " data-mce-source="AP Photo/Nati Harnik" data-mce-caption="Mike Pence" data-link="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Campaign-2016-Pence/a4e3d83d2ab14f06a94afa6d68202188/1/1" /></p><p>In a letter to&nbsp;<a href="http://www.in.gov/activecalendar/EventList.aspx?fromdate=9/9/2016&amp;todate=9/22/2016&amp;display=&amp;type=public&amp;eventidn=252070&amp;view=EventDetails&amp;information_id=251023&amp;print=print">US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert McDonald</a>, Republican vice&nbsp;presidential nominee Mike Pence urged&nbsp;the federal government to repay veterans who used military benefits to attend ITT Tech, the for-profit college that abruptly closed in early September,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/mike-pence-itt-tech-veterans-227984">Politico reported</a>.<span></span></p>
<p><span>Pence called for&nbsp;</span>a full refund of all GI Bill money used at the institution.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"On behalf of all Hoosier veterans, Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb, Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs Director Jim Brown, and I are calling on the VA to fully reimburse student veterans who used the GI Bill to enroll at ITT Technical Institute during 2016 so they may have the opportunity to pursue their education at another institution," Pence wrote.</p>
<p>The GI Bill provides educational benefits for US servicemembers to pay for tuition and fees, as well as a&nbsp;monthly stipend&nbsp;for housing and other educational resources like books and classroom supplies.&nbsp;<span>The post-9/11 GI Bill went into effect in 2009 and provided up to <a href="http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/resources/benefits_resources/rates/ch33/ch33rates080115.asp">$21,084.89</a>&nbsp;in educational benefits to&nbsp;veterans for private or foreign school.</span></p>
<p><span>While c</span><span>urrent students and those actively enrolled in past 120 days who made the decision to leave are eligible to have 100% of their federal loans discharged, students who spend their GI Bill benefits on attending a school that closes&nbsp;receive no such reimbursement. By forgoing their dischargements, both veterans and regular students can transfer to a participating school, but finding a quality institution that will accept the credits is quite the task.</span></p>
<p><span><span>Additionally, veterans who are dependent on GI Bill money to pay for basic monthly fees, like rent, are left&nbsp;in precarious situations. They must find a way to pay these bills or quickly enroll in other programs to continue receiving&nbsp;GI Bill benefits.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>In his letter, Pence stressed that the "brave men and women" who served the country deserve the opportunity to pursue their education wherever they want despite recent closures, which are no fault of the students. "We cannot allow this to stand," he wrote.</span></span></p>
<p><span>About&nbsp;7,000 veterans&nbsp;had been using GI Bill money to attend ITT, according to Politico. Using that figure, Pence's call for repayment of GI Bill money roughly equates to $148 million in reimbursement from the VA to veteran ITT Tech students.&nbsp;Neither ITT Tech nor the VA immediately responded to Business Insider's request for comment.</span></p>
<p><span>In recent years, it's become clear that ITT Tech, along with other for-profit colleges,&nbsp;derives&nbsp;much&nbsp;of its&nbsp;funding from GI Bill benefits.</span></p>
<p><span><span>In 2014, the </span><a href="http://www.help.senate.gov/ranking/newsroom/press/two-years-after-harkin-report-revealed-questionable-business-practices-in-for-profit-college-industry-new-analysis-shows-for-profit-colleges-are-top-recipients-of-post-9/11-gi-bill-dollars">US Senate, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee</a><span> </span><span><a href="http://www.help.senate.gov/ranking/newsroom/press/two-years-after-harkin-report-revealed-questionable-business-practices-in-for-profit-college-industry-new-analysis-shows-for-profit-colleges-are-top-recipients-of-post-9/11-gi-bill-dollars">issued a report</a> disparaging the for-profit college sector and outlining just how much GI Bill money it receives.</span></span></p>
<p><span>The report showed that of the top 10 institutions receiving GI Bill dollars, eight were for-profit schools. ITT Tech ranked third on the list. The institutions marked in bold are for-profit colleges.</span></p>
<ol>
<li><strong><span>Apollo Group &mdash; $272 million</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span>EDMC &mdash; $163 million</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span>ITT &mdash; $161 million</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span>DeVry &mdash; $132 million</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span>Career Education &mdash; $79 million</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span>Corinthian Colleges &mdash; $63 million</span></strong></li>
<li><strong><span>Strayer University &mdash; $56 million</span></strong></li>
<li><span>University of Maryland System (public university) &mdash; $50 million</span></li>
<li><strong><span>UTI &mdash; $50 million</span></strong></li>
<li><span>Embry-Riddle Aeronautical (private nonprofit school) &mdash; $48 million</span></li>
</ol>
<p><span>ITT's closure, affecting about&nbsp;</span><span>40,000 students and 8,000 employees, is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/itt-techs-closure-was-one-of-the-largest-in-us-history-2016-9">one of the largest in US history</a>.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Pence's push to protect veterans who attended ITT Tech is another signal that the Trump campaign&nbsp;is&nbsp;committed to working for US servicemen and women.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">In July, Donald Trump <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-fixing-the-department-of-veterans-affairs-2016-7">pledged to fix the VA and said that</a> "f<span>ixing this corruption will be one of my many and highest priorities, and believe me, it will happen. I'm very good at things like that."</span></span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-federal-reserve-outlines-the-growth-of-for-profit-colleges-2016-9" >The for-profit education sector has exploded in the last 15 years — here's why</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mike-pence-calls-for-the-federal-government-to-repay-itt-tech-veterans-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-commas-correctly-2016-11">13 rules for using commas without looking like an idiot</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/us-veterans-group-wants-congress-to-treat-marijuana-like-medicine-2016-9America's largest veterans group wants Congress to treat marijuana like medicinehttp://www.businessinsider.com/us-veterans-group-wants-congress-to-treat-marijuana-like-medicine-2016-9
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 20:48:00 -0400Keegan Hamilton
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55faea519dd7cc24008bb0b9-2048/blowing smoke.jpg" alt="blowing smoke" data-mce-source="REUTERS PHOTOGRAPHER" data-mce-caption="A man blows smoke rings." /></p><p>A US military veterans group with more than 2 million members has formally called on Congress to "recognize cannabis as a drug with potential medical value" and make it easier for researchers to study whether marijuana is an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries.</p>
<p>The American Legion, the country's largest veterans organization, approved a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/323168449/American-Legion-Marijuana-Resolution" target="_blank"><u>resolution</u></a>last week at its national convention that calls on US lawmakers to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I controlled substances, a restrictive category that includes heroin, LSD, and other drugs with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse."</p>
<p>In August, after five years of deliberations and review, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/the-dea-will-still-treat-weed-the-same-as-heroin"><u>declined a petition</u></a> to remove marijuana from the Schedule I category. The agency's chief said the decision was based on the fact that the Food and Drug Administration has not determined that marijuana is a "safe and effective medicine."</p>
<p>While urging Congress to overrule the DEA, the American Legion also called on the agency to "license privately funded medical marijuana production operations" in order to "enable safe and efficient cannabis drug development research." The DEA has already said it will allow more scientists to grow research-grade weed, but it has yet to actually <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/is-the-deas-plan-to-let-scientists-grow-their-own-pot-just-smoke-and-mirrors"><u>grant anyone permission</u></a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57d3065e077dcc21008b4b11-2400/rtr3dfcy.jpg" alt="marijuana medical" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn" data-mce-caption="Ayrn Taylor, a United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) member and employee at the Venice Beach Care Center, displays medical marijuana during a media visit at the medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, California February 6, 2013." /></p>
<p>The nonprofit, nonpartisan veterans group, which was founded after World War I and now has hundreds of outposts across the country, is especially interested in studies that examine whether marijuana can benefit people with PTSD, a common affliction among soldiers returning from war zones.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, researcher Sue Sisley and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) earned federal approval for <a href="http://www.maps.org/research/mmj" target="_blank"><u>the first-ever study</u></a> of how smoking marijuana affects veterans with PTSD. Sisley reportedly spoke at several American Legion events and lobbied for the group to approve the weed resolution.</p>
<p>Speaking to Marijuana.com, Sisley <a href="http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/09/american-legion-calls-for-marijuana-rescheduling/" target="_blank">called</a> the American Legion's resolution a "historic shift in public policy" and said it could help shape federal policy in the coming years.</p>
<p>"I consider this a major breakthrough for such a conservative veterans organization," Sisley said. "Suddenly the American Legion has a tangible policy statement on cannabis that will allow them to lobby and add this to their core legislative agenda. The organization has a massive amount of influence at all levels."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-veterans-group-wants-congress-to-treat-marijuana-like-medicine-2016-9#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/preauricular-sinus-small-hole-above-ear-2016-11">Here's why some people have a tiny hole above their ears</a></p>